Peace Out
by angel3db
Summary: Xander has always kept the group together with his wit, but after a night of fighting an archmage, he accidentally gets a member of the gang hurt. After getting kicked off of the team, he takes a walk, bumps into a fight, and ends up in another dimension.
1. Chapter 1 Nightmares

**Peace Out**

Xander has always kept the group together with his wit and charm. But after one night of fighting an archmage, he accidentally gets a member of the gang hurt. After getting kicked off of the team, he takes a walk, bumps into a fight, and ends up in another dimension full of mystical beings, alchemy, and dragons.

A/N Takes place in the middle of season one, before the episode Nightmares, but after the Episode The Puppet show. Also I wanted to say that it'll be awhile before I update my other stories. The computer me and seraphim2db were using died several weeks back and it had all of our stories on it. I'm still going to update my stories but it'll be awhile before they're posted because I have to try to rewrite the chapters I had written out but never posted.

Chapter 1

Nightmares

"Well this isn't just a little depressing." Xander said aloud, his voice echoing eerily throughout the library. He, Buffy, and Willow had just barely won a battle with an archmage and Giles had gotten hurt. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty by that.

"Xander this isn't your fault." Willow tried to comfort him as she put a hand on his shoulder. "You tried to help... Giles wouldn't want you to beat yourself up about what happened."

"I wouldn't say that, Willow." they heard Buffy's voice say, startling them both. Looking up they saw Buffy, walking through the library doors looking mad as hell.

"How's Giles?" Xander immediately asked, as he stood to his feet and walked over to her.

"Like you care." she stated bitterly, as she struggled away from his touch.

"Buffy come on, you can't think that what I did was on purpose."

"No what I think is you should've done what Giles told you and stayed at home." Buffy shot back. "If it wasn't for you then he wouldn't be in a coma right now."

"Oh my God." Willow said as she stood to her feet. "A coma."

"Yeah..." Buffy replied as she stopped glaring at Xander. "When Xander pushed Giles he must've hit his head on something."

"How long will he..."

"The doctor said he doesn't know. It could be a day...a week...or maybe..."

"We shouldn't think like that." Xander cut Buffy off as he put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "This is Giles we're talking about. He'll be up and about in no time."

"No thanks to you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What it means is, I want you to stay away from us. I knew your stupidity would get somebody hurt one day."

"Buffy..."

"No, Willow she's right." Xander cut the red head off. "You wont have to worry about me screwing anything up again." with that said Xander turned on his heel and marched out of the room.

"Buffy, I can't believe that you were so mean to him." Willow said as she turned from Xander's retreating form to the Slayer. As she looked at Buffy, she saw her rubbing at her temples and looking completely disoriented. "Buffy are you okay?"

"Ye...yeah I just have a little headache." Buffy replied with a wince as she looked up at her. "Now where's Xander? I need to talk to him about how Giles is doing."

With wide eyes, all Willow could do was stare at her new best friend strangely.

* * *

'Maybe Buffy's right.' Xander thought to himself as he clucthed his jacket tighter around his body. For some reason it felt unnaturally cold that night. 'All I did was get in the way tonight. Maybe I should stay out of the group.'

With that thought rattling around in his mind, he heard an ear splitting demonic growl. Snapping out of his dark reverie, he looked around and noticed that he was in Sunnydale park. Hearing the sound of a fight ahead of himself, he instinctly reached into his jacket and pulled out a stake.

"I guess this is better then nothing." he muttered to himself as he ran in the direction of the disturbance.

Running through a clearing of trees and bushes, he nearly pissed his pants at the spectacle that was unfolding, not thirty feet away from himself. There were three of what looked to be ninjas in all black tactical and metallic armor, fighting off a huge black almost werewolf like creature. There were over five more of the same kind of demon littering the ground, which made Xander realize that even that group probably didn't need his help. Looking down at the little stake in his hands, knowing he wouldn't be much help anyway, all he could do was watch the fight before him.

* * *

The werewolf demon barked dangerously at the lead ninja, as the others stood back to avoid being ripped apart by the razor sharp tip of it's long doggish tail. Before he could fully take out his sword the demon all of a sudden, pounced. Before its claws could rip into his body, he delivered a super powered back hand punch to its muzzle. Eyes glowing white, the werewolf shrank back, but lashed out with a swipe of one its paws, knocking him to the ground.

As the others tried to join the fray, the demon turned around and opened up it's maw. Before they could move a surge of fire ruptured from it's mouth, destroying the ground under them and knocking them off of their feet.

Doing a fancy spinning move to get to his feet, the lead ninja looked to the ground for the sword he dropped when the werewolf hit him. Seeing it he decided to run for it, but the demon pounced on him and started to rip through his suit and then the soft flesh underneath.

* * *

"Damnit." Xander muttered to himself as he stood up from his position of hiding behind the bushes.

Seeing that the other two were still down, he ran to see if he could help. Picking up a rock, he threw it at the beast making it stop it's feeding frenzy and concentrate it's evil gaze on him. Standing on it's back legs, Xander looked up at the towering demon and let out an audible gulp.

"Nice doggy." he said as the werewolf snarled, bared its fangs and lunged at him.

Jumping out of the way just in time, Xander came up in a roll and his arm grazed something metal. Coming out of his roll, he looked to his side and saw that it was an all silver broad sword. Hearing the demons growl again, Xander attempted to run but tripped on a tree branch knocking him to the ground. As the demon prepared to lunge on his next meal, Xander brought the sword up and it was plunged hilt deep into the demons chest. As the werewolf let out a howl of pain, as black viscera spewed out of it's wounds, it slapped Xander with one of it's paws, sending him flying into a tree, were he hit his head on a rock. Before losing conciousness, he saw that he was laying next to the ninja warrior that the demon had eviscerated, before closing his eyes and letting the darkness claim him.

* * *

Seeing the demon fall over dead, the lead ninja warriors mask deteriorated into nothing, revealing a handsome young man in his mid-twenties. Glancing over at the unconcious Xander, he smiled before he drew a circle and a symbol into the dirt. Slowly grabbing Xander's hand, he put it into the circle and dabbed his gloved finger on his chest and gathered some blood. Using it to draw the same symbol on the back of Xander's hand, he clapped his hands together once and a soft blue glow surrounded them both. With his last shuttering breath, as the light faded, the man coughed up a little blood, closed his eyes and finally died.

* * *

Climbing out of the crater, that the beast had created with his attack, the two armoured warriors lowered their heads as they saw the bodies around them. Particularly their leader. Running up to him, they saw that it was too late and that he was already dead.

"Power down." a female voice said as both of the warriors armor, mystically dissappeared from their bodies.

The man was white, tall, well muscled, had slicked back black hair, and had a cold and stoic demeanor. The woman however was a very beautiful light skinned black woman, about 5ft 1in with soft brown eyes, natural pink hair and was wearing all black leather.

"Xavier..." she said softly as she leaned down and touched her dead husband's face.

"I'm sorry sister." the man said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "But we must go now. The chance to make a portal to our world is slipping away."

"Yes...bu...but what about him?" she asked as she looked down at Xander.

Scanning his body more carefully she saw that he had Xavier's sword clutched tightly in one hand and the demon lying dead, not to far from him. And looking at his hand she saw the symbol of fire on his hand, letting her instantly know what happened.

"We'll leave him of course." her brother said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "This is his world. He'll just have to fend for himself."

"No..." the pink haired woman said as she looked forth into the advancing darkness. As her mystical powers reached out, she could sense powerful demonic forces nearby. "We won't leave him here..."

"But Skyy!!!!"

"He bares the mark of the final dragon, sealed with the blood of my martazar." Skyy interrupted as she looked back down at Xander. "Now pick him up. We must go."

"Yes sister." he replied with a growl even as he picked up Xander and carried him over his shoulder. With a tear Skyy turned to her dead mate.

"Goodbye." she whispered as she snapped her gloved fingers, causing a spark. Changing the oxygen density in the air with the help of transmutation circles on her gloves, a roaring fire surrounded Xavier and the dead beasts and in mere seconds of intense heat, they were reduced to ashes.

Having seen enough Skyy turned, looked past her brother, threw some crystals down to the ground and clapped her hands together once. The transmutation circles glowed, along with the crystals and a swirling vortex opened. Giving one last look to earth, one in utter distaste and the other in sadness, the three jumped through the portal and into the land of the mystics.

A/N there will be a flashback hopefully in the next chapter that will show how Giles got hurt.


	2. Chapter 2 And Dreamscapes

A/N Thanks for all of the great reviews. I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story. I'm going to try to update as soon as possible, so please just keep reviewing.

Chapter 2

And Dreamscapes

'God my head hurts.' was Xander's first coherent thought as his mind suddenly came back into the realm of conciousness.

'That's because you hit your head silly.' a little girl's voice interrupted his thoughts with a laugh.

'Oh man, I sound like a little girl now.' he thought as the voice laughed again. Forcing his eyes open, after feeling something wet on his forehead, he saw a cute girl, of about thirteen years of age, with long flowing black hair, standing over him, placing a wet rag on him.

"Um...hi." Xander said nervously as he looked around the tiny room. The place looked like a shack with little to no personal objects around, but rather swords, other weapons, and books laying around.

"Hi." she replied back, but as Xander was looking at her he could have sworn that she didn't move her lips.

"He's awake." the man from the night before said as he walked into the room. After a few seconds one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen walked into the room. She had shoulder length pink hair and some of the most intense liquid brown eyes he had ever seen.

"Nail I was just putting a wet rag on him, I promise." the little girl said as she ran into the older man's arms.

"I know little one." Nail said as he caressed her cheek fondly. "Now go outside. We must talk to him privately." sending out a wave towards Xander, she did as she was told.

"Where...where am I?" Xander asked as he stood out of bed. For some reason it was hard for him to move, but it wasn't from any form of pain but rather as if the air itself were thicker. "Who are you people?"

"My name is Skyy and this is my older brother, Nail."

'Nail?' Xander thought with a grin. 'What was their dad's name, Hammer?' as he thought that, Nail growled low in his throat and was about to move forward until Skyy grabbed his arm. 'Damn did he hear what I thought?'

"Nail wait for us outside." Skyy told her brother as they shared a look.

"As you wish, sister." he said with a formal bow, as he rolled his eyes at Xander and walked out of the room.

"What's your name?" Skyy asked as she walked closer to him.

"Alex but my friends call me..."

"Xander." she finished for him.

"How did you..."

"My people have the ability to read people's minds." she told him. "So the next time, please be careful what you think around my brother."

'Oh crap.' Xander thought, causing her to smile at him. "Will you stop doing that. Now where am I?"

"Before I tell you that, I must say that we had no choice in bringing you here. You were knocked unconcious by that beast and we couldn't leave you outside alone..."

"Just tell me where I am." he interrupted making her let out a sigh.

"You're on my home world of Thalos."

* * *

"I'm sorry that you feel uncomfortable here." Skyy said as she led Xander outside."I think it's because Thalos' gravity is heavier then that of earth's."

It had taken Xander a moment but he finally started to adjust to the idea that he wasn't on earth anymore. And looking up, he had no choice but to believe. The sky was a beautiful pink, with two suns and the clouds looked like giant puffy marshmallows in the horizon. And taking in a lung full of air, he knew that he couldn't have been in California, because there was no smog. Taking a better look around he saw that he was in a forest clearing with jeering dark age dressed villagers and many shacks and huts all around them. But in the distance of the trees it unveiled a grim landscape covered in thorn bushes and the scars of recent fires.

'God what the hell happened to this place?'

"This is the result of our last excursion with our evil uncle, Wrath." Nail said as he walked up to him, making Xander remember the warning that Skyy had given him. Holding his tongue, he didn't make the joke that he was subconciously thinking about.

"Yes, but before we get to that we must talk about what happened last night." Skyy started as she took Xander's right hand, into hers. "What do you remember from that time?"

"I was talking to some fri...some people I knew and I walked to the park. When I did I saw these ninja guys fighting off some kinda werewolf thing..."

"It's called a Wolfmar and those of whom were fighting it were us..."

"Nail." Skyy beckoned her brother to be silent, before turning back to Xander. "Please continue." she said as Xander gave the two siblings a look. It was just so strange to him for an older brother to obey the younger one.

"All I can remember is trying to help that guy... oh man where is he...I..."

"He's dead." Skyy told him sadly. "He was... in your world he would have been known as my husband."

"I'm sorry...I..."

"This isn't your fault. Now please go with my brother and he will explain the rules of my world to you."

"Why? You guys can send me back home right?" he asked as Skyy and Nail gave each other a look.

"Just come with me." Nail said as his little sister ran into his arms.

"Can I come?" she asked as he looked down at her and smiled.

"No little one." he said as he caressed her cheek, with his thumb. "Now stay with Skyy. I'll be back shortly."

With that said, he took Xander by the arm and took him through an avenue of trees, which allowed them access along an old dirt road. A thick humid mist filled the forest, as he led them on the wining, torturous path... clambering through bracken and over jagged rocks.

"Our journey will be long, so I'll begin my peoples story here." Nail said as he closed his eyes to think. "Many years ago, our people were much like yours. We had famine, disease, and many wars, but then one day a large faction of us evolved from such things."

"How do you know so much about my world?"

"Because my people also have the ability, through alchemy, to see into other worlds." Nail replied as the forest separated ahead, revealing the ruins of a great stone wall, that strecthed out as far as the eye could see. Taking a closer look at it, he saw that it was cracked and splintered into countless jagged shards. "Now look over there. That is the Temen-ni-gru."

Following his gaze Xander saw that far off, half veiled in the swirling fog, was a castle that sat nearly a couple of miles up on a tower stand. They were unbroken by the war, even as the creepy fog waifed about its feet. And looking around he saw several mini homes, that were destroyed long ago.

"Those that didn't want law, order, and a government stayed on the surface world. Shortly after we finished our castle another war broke out between the surface dwellers and those of the kingdom. A powerful sorcerer then created the tower of the Temen-ni-gru, that rose our castle to the sky, in order to stop the fighting, so we could live in peace."

"Did it work?"

"For a hundreds of years it did, which led to my father sending my uncle to conduct peace negotiations with the surface dwellers. But something went horribly wrong."

Flashback

On Top of The Temen-ni-gru

A powerfully built man laid in the garden area of his castle, next to his wife and his eldest son, of whom was sitting indian style and reading a book. Usually he would be about his castle and upon his kingdom doing kingly things, but today seemed unnaturally beautiful and peaceful. And to be honest with himself, he never wanted it to end.

Suddenly the little bundle in his wifes arms started to wail, disturbing the peaceful tranquility. With a smile, King Edward Elric took his little daughter out of his wifes arms and held her close to his heart.

"What's wrong little one?" he asked, as she looked up at him with the same innocent brown eyes as his. At the sight of him, she stopped crying and cooed. "Are you hungry?" he asked as he picked up a green grape and placed it over her mouth.

"Edward what are you doing?!" his wife asked with wide eyes. "Constance is a newborn, she can't..."

"I was merely letting her have the juices." the king replied as he looked over at her. Dropping the grape in his mouth instead, he reached out and brushed a leaf from his wifes long flowing pink hair. She was just so beautiful.

"Father...father...!!!" he heard his eldest daughter Skyy yell out. Looking up, he saw her running towards him with something in her hands and fresh hot tears running down her face. Placing Constance, back in Trisha's hands he stood to his feet and met his daughter halfway in her run.

"What's wrong, Skyy?"

"I...I...I was practicing my alchemy like you taught me and...and..."

"Let me see what's in your hand." he said as he looked down and saw a blue bird twitching in her hands.

"Is it dead?" Skyy asked.

"No." Edward replied after a few moments of thinking. Putting the bird down on the ground, he pinched his hand, letting a dribble of blood come out and drew a circle of his blood around the animal. Clapping his hands together once, the alchemy circle on the back of his hand and the one he had drawn on the ground glowed blue. After the power of the blood seal dissipated the bird flew up into the air.

"Now what spell were you trying to perform?" he asked as he got down on one knee and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I was trying to..."

"See that boy in the mirror again." Edward finished for her. "Skyy, I've told you not to try that. That's a dangerous spell and you could get hurt."

"Yes, father." she said ashamed, looking down to her tiny feet.

Suddenly the sky boomed, as thunder rolled through the air. Looking up they all saw as the heavens turned from a beautiful shade of pink to an almost pitch black red. Feeling an evil power growing, Edward stood up and watched as a man with a pointed blonde beard, crazed eyes, and a axe and sword in each hand, that was dripping blood, standing towards the entrance of his castle. Taking in the spectacle, Edward looked even closer.

"Brother?"

"Uncle Alphonse?" Skyy asked as she was about to run forward, towards him.

"Skyy, no!" Edward yelled, never taking his eyes off of his brother, of whom stood in place breathing heavily, chest heaving. "Go to your mother now!" as he yelled Skyy screamed in fright before bolting straight for her mother, her little heart pounding with fear. "Brother what has happened to you?"

An Hour Before

The Surface World

Alphonse fled on horseback, cloak billowing, chased by five rag-tag castle enemies. He was on a mission to make peace with the enemies of the northern woods, and was ambushed almost as soon as he left the kingdom and crossed the great wall. Taking a turn, he saw that he had made a mistake as up ahead, a steep, rocky area prevented escape. Getting off his horse, he attempted to run and seeing his plight, a soldier aimed a primitive rifle and fired.

Blood exploded from his arm as he ran, making his sword fall from his now functionless hand. Taking advantage of the situation another soldier grabbed the sword, as Alphonse ran. Stopping at the rocks, after seeing that he had nowhere to go, Al faced the men showing no fear. Another Rifleman then raised his rifle, seeing it Al reached over his shoulder to grasp a sheathed knife. Throwing it the Rifleman jerked back, the knife in his eye socket.

Reading an ax, the soldiers moved in with swords. They then battled, steel against steel. Al fended off blows from all sides, but was unable to stop a lunge of a sword, of which blade stabbed deep into his side. Alphonse roared in pain, bringing his ax down...breaking the sword at the hilt.

An upwards stroke sent, said soldier's head over heels in a fountain of blood. Al staggered, howling, trying to pull the blade from his ribs as the remaining soldiers closed in. Before they could come down on him with their swords, a dark shadow loomed over Al and quickly jumped into his body. With green almost, reptillian eyes, Al twirled his ax around and tore threw the remaining soldiers as if they were nothing but toilet paper.

As their twisted, bloody torn bodies laid on the ground, he finally came to his senses.

"What...what has befallen me?" he asked himself as he looked down at his hands.

"I am Dai-Satan." a dark voice spoke into his mind. "And I have been watching you for a long time, Alphonse Elric."

"Get out of my head." Al pleaded as he fell to his knees. "What is it that you want?"

"The kingdom long lost to me and the death of your brother." Dai-Satan informed him. "And you will help me."

"No, I will never betray my brother."

"Even though he has already betrayed you? Look around you Alphonse and think. How is it that your enemy knew exactly where you were and why would your brother send you out here alone. You are the arch duke of the kingdom of Thalos. You should have the royal guard with you."

"Why would my brother betray me?" Al asked.

"Because of his jealousy of you. He doesn't want you to be king and he's been jealous of you for a long time."

"I...I can't believe this..."

"But you must. Right now he's celebrating what he thought was your demise..."

"Tell me how to get rid of him." Alphonse interrupted a sneer on his lips.

"You can borrow some of my power. Now go...!"

As the power of Dai-Satan erupted throughout Al's body, he picked up his sword, ran back to his horse and galloped back to the Temen-ni-gru tower. Once there he started the slaugter of many of his people. As he finally made it to the top of the castle, he saw his older brother talking to his niece. Not listening to his brother's words he raised his sword up, before he finally spoke.

"You've betrayed me brother." Al spoke, in a tongue not of his own. "And for that you will die."

Dodging a sword swipe, Ed clapped his hand and put it to the ground making a broad sword materialize in his hands. Blocking his brother's next swing, he met him face to face, even as blood from Al's sword dripped on his hand.

"Brother what have you done?"

"Your brother isn't here right now." Dai-Satan spoke through Al.

'Dai-Satan.' "Trisha get the children out of here!" Edward yelled to his wife. Taking that second of distraction Al ran his brother through with his sword. Falling off the tip of it, he fell to his knees.

"Now all of you are next." he said as he walked towards Trisha and the others.

"Father!!!" Nail yelled out as he attempted to run forward to help.

"Nail no!" his mother cried as she grabbed his arm.

"But mother..."

"You should listen to your mother boy." Al said as his features started to turn more demonic. "You should've run when you had the chance Trisha. Now you will die alongside your husband and children." trapped on the corner of the building, they could only watch as he raised his sword up to finish them off.

Suddenly Edward appeared, stomach dripping with blood and took on a defensive stance, stepping in front of his wife and children.

"You...you're the one that will perish this night." Ed said as he clapped his hands together.

As he did so a powerful wall of energy surrounded the castle and the alchemy circles around his hands disappeared and one of them went on Skyy's hand and the other on Nail's. Meeting his wifes gaze, he sent out a gust of wind that knocked her and his three children off of the side of the building. But before Trisha fell all the way, Alphonse threw something after her.

Being the last to fall off of the building all Nail was able to see was his father being cut in half.

As the family landed harmlessly to the ground, Trisha handed Nail his little sister, before sprawling down to her knees. Looking around her, Nail and Skyy saw their uncles small axe sticking out of her back. Tipping over Nail handed Skyy their sister and caught her before she fell face first to the ground.

"Mother..."

"Listen to me Nail...you are the eldest and you must watch after your sisters."

"But mot..."

"Pro...promise me." she begged as a small trickle of blood came out of her mouth.

"I promise." he said even as a tear fell out of his eye.

"Skyy...you are my little princess..." not being able to finish her sentence, Trisha's eyes glazed over as she took her last breath. As all three of the children started to cry, they looked around as fairies and the people of the northern woods came out of the shadows.

End Flashback

"We were then taken in and raised by the people of the northern woods." Nail started to finish the story. "We later learned and met up with the few people that managed to survive my uncle's onslaught. They managed to save a few trinkets and a few books on alchemy. They also told us of the new name he took on. The name Wrath."

"That's the saddest story I've ever heard." Xander said as he put his hand on Nail's shoulder.

"Yes...yes it is, isn't it?"

"But there's a few things I don't understand." Xander went on. "Why hasn't your uncle come down here to kill you all?"

"Before my father died he made a barrier that surrounded the entire castle. When I read the books of alchemy, I found that it was a barrier to keep evil spirits in a certain space. However lately my uncle has found a way to send down evil demons to attack us."

"I have another question. Why do you follow Skyy? I thought you were the oldest?"

"I am. But the night my parents were slain, I gave up my birth right of king and vowed only to serve and protect my sisters." Nail said as he turned his back to him. "Now come we must journey back home."

"Wait...this isn't my home. I'm supposed to be back in Sunnydale."

"For now my friend this will be your home. We won't be able to send you home for atleast another three moon slips."

"Moon slips?" Xander asked confused. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"In your world it's...it's three years."

"Three years?" Xander asked, reeling from the news. "What the..."

Sunnydale Hospital

Sametime

"...bloody hell have you done?" Giles asked as he finally awakened from his coma. Looking up at Buffy from his bed, all she could do was lower her head in shame.

"I don't even remember saying any of those things to Xander." she told him again. "Besides, if it wasn't for him in the first place you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

'You bloody stupid girl.' "If it wasn't for Xander then I would've parished. At the moment Xander pushed me out of the way that demon was throwing a ball of energy at me. A ball of energy that would've certainly killed both myself and him. Now where is he now?"

"I...I..."

"Buffy kicked him off of the team and he ran out."

"You bloody did what!" Giles roared, making Buffy flinch at the sound of his voice. She had never seen him so angry. "You sent that boy off alone, at night with the Master's disciples lurking about?"

"Giles, I'm..."

"I don't want to hear anymore of your apologies. Just find him, Buffy."

* * *

"You seem quiet all of a sudden." Nail commented as he and Xander came through a clearing of trees.

"I was just thinking about my friends."

"You still consider them your friends, even after how they've treated you?" Nail asked as Xander roughly grabbed him around his arm.

"Listen man, I don't care how you guys are in this world, but in mine it's an invasion of privacy to read peoples minds. So I really would appreciate it if you guys would stop doing that. It's annoying."

"As you wish." Nail replied with a slight bow. 'Maybe there's hope for this boy yet.' "Even though we lack the power to send you home at this time, we can still look into your world."

"How?"

"Just come with me." as they walked through the village, they went up a hill and into a large tent like area. As they entered they saw about a dozen brown robed monks, sitting indian style on the floor. Giving Xander the signal to be quiet, they walked up to what looked to be a water well.

"This is called a scrying pool." Nail told Xander in a hushed voice. "Concentrate on the person you want to see most and it'll show them to you."

"That's it?"

"That's all you have to do."

'Alright here goes nothing.' Xander thought to himself as he looked into the pool.

As he concentrated on Buffy the pool started to slightly bubble and boil. Simmering down some, Xander looked in and saw that it was very dark and raining in Sunnydale. But looking a bit closer, he saw that the town looked strangely different. Almost like it would back in cowboy times.

Suddenly two figures stepped out into the street, coming from opposite directions. Both of them had on traditional cowboy hats and clothes and they kept their heads down to avoid the downpour of rain from getting into their faces. As one of them lifted up their heads, Xander saw that it was a woman with long brown and blue streaked hair with some of the palest skin he had ever seen.

"I'm your huckleberry." she said over to the other figure that clung to the shadows.

Coming out of said shadows, Xander saw someone, a female someone, with long blonde hair walk slowly towards her opponent. Hand hovering over the gun that sat on her hip, she tipped up her hat and as the light hit her face, Xander saw that it was Buffy.

"Come on Fred. You can't hate me that much to want me dead." Buffy regarded the blue haired woman.

"As I told you before Slayer, this is only a shell. I am the goddess..."

"Illyria." Buffy finished for her with a growl. "But when I get done with ya, I'm gonna be gettin' my sister, Fred back."

"We'll see about that little one." Illyria said with a smug smile.

"Shay when." Buffy replied as her hand inched down further to her gun. At almost the same time, both of them reached for their guns and opened fire.

"What the..." Xander said aloud as the scrying pool, started to boil over, stopping the picture. "What was that?"

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you." Nail whispered, as he put his hand on Xander's shoulder. "If you can't concentrate hard enough, you'll end up looking into the wrong place and even different times in other dimensions. Hopefully in time you'll master this technique and be able to see your friends again. Now come on, we'll go back to camp."

As they started to walk out, something small hit Nail hard in the chest. Looking down, Xander saw that it was a pretty little fairy that was almost the spitting image of Tinkerbell, from Peter Pan, even down to the green clothes. The only difference being that she had curly red hair.

"Nail...Nail you're back." the little fairy said as she tried to wrap her little arms around, Nail's neck. "I thought you were..."

"I'm fine, Vallow." Nail said, smiling at her. "I told you that I would be back." after hearing Xander clear his throat, Nail turned to him and pointed. "And this outworlder is..."

"The promised one." she interrupted, excitedly. "The one foretold..."

"Vallow!" Nail yelled out, giving her a look. After a moment of looking ashamed, she turned to Xander.

"I'm...I'm sorry, my name is Vallow. Welcome to the world of Thalos." with that said she flew away.

"What was that all about?" Xander asked confused, as he watched her fly off.

"Nothing you should worry about." Nail lied. "Now come, there isn't much light left."

As they walked back to the camp, they saw Skyy and a few others lighting a bonfire, with what looked to be a boar roasting above it.

"I hope you two are hungry?" Skyy asked as she saw the two of them, coming out of the woods. "Constance caught this boar all by herself."

'God, I thought these people were more advanced then this?' Xander thought to himself. Casting a glance down, he saw Constance put a frown on her face and lower her head as though she were about to cry. 'Damn, I forgot that they can hear my thoughts.' "Hey," he said walking up to the girl and putting his hand on her shoulder. "can I have the first piece?"

With that said, they waited as the boar got done cooking before sitting down, carving it up, and eating. Having some troubling thoughts, he watched as Skyy picked at her food, before she stood up and walked into a sparse piece of the woods. Seeing that no one was concerned, he put the boar meat down and followed her. Seeing her standing beside a tree, he could have sworn he saw some tear drops falling, before he walked up behind her.

"Penny for your thoughts."

"Wha...what?" Skyy asked as she turned around to look at him.

"Oh ummm in my world it's an expression that means, what are you thinking about?" Xander clarified.

"I was thinking about Xavier."

"Oh...your husband."

"Yes, but I don't want to talk about that now." Skyy said as she wiped at her face again. "What did you want?"

"I ummm...just wanted to ask you a few questions?"

"Didn't my brother inform you of all you needed to know?"

"More or less."

"You wanted to know why my skin complexion is darker then that of my siblings?" she asked with a chuckle at his embarrassed look.

"Well it was one of my questions." he admitted as they started to walk back towards the village. "But I really wanted to know if you would teach me how to fight. I'm gonna be here for three years and..."

"Of course we'll train you." she cut him off, before putting her hand in his. "We aren't your friends from Sunnydale Xander. I'll see if I can get my brother to start training you tomorrow."

"Thanks. Now there's one more thing I wanted to know. What is this thing?" he asked, pointing down at the alchemy circle, that seemed tattooed on the back of his hand.

"That is the blood seal of the final dragon." she explained with a sad smile. "Before my...husband died, he transferred some of his power to you."

"So...so does that mean I can do magic now?"

"I don't know. There's no way of knowing what power you hold."

"Then let's find out." a dark voice said from the shadows.

Before they could do more then look around, a huge explosion rocked the earth, sending both of them sprawling to the dirty ground. As they got back to their feet, the smoke and dirt cloud dissipated, and a warrior with heavy duty crimson red and gold armor and a helmet, wielding a sword and shield stepped out in front of them.

"I am Koragg the Knight Wolf and I have come for you outworlder."

"Oh crap." Xander muttered, even as a red dragon descended out of the heavens.

A/N The scene where Xander saw Buffy in the wild west, was a excerpt from my story wild wild sunnydale a part I haven't written yet to be more specific, which I'm going to start back writing on soon. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'm working on the next one as we speak.


	3. Chapter 3 Sacrifice

Chapter 3

Sacrifice

Shinron, the red dragon, slithered around his master before rising high into the air, hovering above the assembled mass. Behind his helmet, which covered his entire head and face, Koragg chuckled as the villagers fled and screamed in fear. Looking around, he squinted his eyes under his visor as he saw the outworlder standing next to his master's eldest niece and nephew.

"If you want him, Koragg you must go through me!" Nail shouted, as he looked in the ashes of the bonfire and saw the skull of the boar they had just eaten.

Kicking it up, a cloud of ash from the already dead fire flew around as he grasped it with his left hand and drew a flame circle on the hand holding the skull using his own blood. Aiming it a volley of fire admitted out of the skull's mouth and eye sockets, that headed straight for the villian. Merely lifting up his small red shield, that also served as a sheath for his sword, Koragg managed to block the fire, even as the searing heat burned his armored hands. Using superior strength Koragg repelled the fire, sending it deep into the woods, where a boom was heard seconds after it's arrival.

"Nice try boy." Koragg said, scoffing behind his helmet. "But not good enough. Shinron, get the prophesized one."

'What? Is he talking about me?' Xander thought, as the dragon swooped out of the sky and stood before him. Letting out an outerworldly roar, Xander stood in place out of fear. But strangely all the dragon could do was stand in place and watch him with it's large reptillian eyes.

* * *

"So it's just you and me?" Nail sneered, as he reached over his shoulder and grabbed his sword.

"Yes, it seems like." Koragg replied as he unsheathed his own sword. "Now let us begin."

Focusing only on the fight, he lunged forward, sword in hand, and immediately went to deal a killing blow. As Nail started slashing, Koragg easily blocked and struck back. The sword play was very fast, as they blocked and parried and hacked like lightning, constantly attacking, they were perfectly matched.

Finally taking the advantage, Koragg brought his sword up, as he circled around Nail, so that the moon light's rays reflected off his sword and went into Nail's eyes, temporarily blinding him. Smiling under his helmet Koragg lunged forward under Nail's blind swing and slammed into him, making them both topple over.

Getting to his feet, Koragg raised his sword to deal the final blow, but was stopped as another sword clanged into his. Looking up he saw that it was Skyy who had stopped him. Before he engaged in combat with her however, he glanced over her shoulder and noticed that his dragon Shinron, was merely standing in place and just watching the chosen one his master had told him about.

'What in Thalos is he doing?' he thought to himself, as he felt a sharp pain across his chest. Snapping his mind back to the fight, he saw that it was Skyy hitting him in the chest with a relentless amount of sword swipes.

Blocking the next barrage of blows with his shield, he ducked under her next swing and came up with a fist to her gut that knocked her back a few paces. As Nail got back to his feet, someone spoke to Koragg in the middle of battle. Following the new plan he jumped back several feet and raised up his shield of darkness.

"Wolf Attack!" he yelled as the shield raised up in the middle to reveal, what he called, the Eye of the Master. Before they could move powerful red blasts, in the shape of wolf heads, shot from the Eye of the Master and exploded in front of them.

The resulting explosion sent the siblings into the air and back onto the ground, both groaning in pain. Even Xander was affected by the wave of energy and thrown off his feet as Shinron again flew into the sky. Not being able to control himself, Koragg chuckled as he walked towards Skyy's fallen form. He could hear her labored breathing and the slight moans that escaped her lips, even as he reached down and lifted her up, by the straps of her shirt.

"It seems that for now you'll do." he said in a whisper, even as he mumbled a spell under his breath. Suddenly a large red alchemy circle appeared under him and the both of them sank into the ground.

"Skyy!!" Nail yelled as the alchemy circle dissappeared. Hearing the demon roar behind him, he watched as Shinron ascended into the sky and vanished in the darkness of the night.

"What are we gonna do now?" Xander asked as he walked up behind the slightly older male. All Nail could do at the moment was growl as he thought about his next move.

On Top Of The Temen-ni-gru

The palace still stood tall and beautiful, just as Skyy remembered as Koragg led her roughly down it's dark corridors. The only difference from before was the faint smell of blood, that seemed to linger as they passed by the tall white pillars that held the kingdom together. As they walked towards the throne room, she looked and saw demonic beings lurking in the shadows. She could feel their eyes roaming her body in an unsavory way.

Suddenly they came to a stop and Koragg threw her roughly to the floor. Taking in her environment, even though it was dark, she knew that she was in her father's war room. Standing to her feet, her eyes were immediately drawn to her father's throne and she saw the dark silhouette of a demon with large horns.

"Skyy my beautiful niece, please come forward into the light." a gravely raspy voice spoke. Not intending to move an inch, she was then pushed roughly by Koragg, so hard that she nearly toppled over.

"You heard my master you insulant witch. When he tells you too..."

"Koragg that is enough." Wrath told him. "Please leave us."

"As you wish, my master." Koragg replied with a bow. Spinning on his heel, he walked out of the room, closing the huge doors behind him.

"How long has it been, child?" Wrath asked, only for Skyy to stare at him coldly and not answer. A sneer growing on his lips, at her insulance, Wrath's hand came out of the shadows and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off of her feet. "It's rude not to answer someone when they're speaking to you. Especially when that someone is your uncle."

"My uncle died a long time ago." Skyy spat defiantly.

"Never the less...I still want to know about the outworlder that you brought here. What purpose is he here for? Is he truly the prophesized one?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Because if you don't I'll kill him and the rest of your family."

"I still won't tell you." she said as a slow smile spread across his face. "Do your worst."

"Oh, I will little one. I will." Wrath said as his eyes glowed red, as he prepared his mind reading spell.

First Day Break

"Nail what the hell is going on?" Xander asked, following Nail even as the first sun peeked out from behind the horizon. Any other time he would've commented on how beautiful everything looked

"I don't have time to explain." Nail replied as he led them to a dock on the lake, where a huge wooden war ship sat. On the side of it, in old worn letters, read the T.S.S Pheonix. But infact the letters themselves were'nt the only things old and worn. The ship itself looked as if it had seen many battles and had lost. Going up the plank, Xander grabbed Nail roughly by the arm.

"Then make time."

"Get your hands off of me. Every second we waste my sister is in danger." Nail said jerking away from his touch.

"I...I know, I just wanted to understand why you guys are hiding things from me." Xander replied. "And why was that Koragg guy after me?"

"I promise that when this is all over, I'll explain everything." he promised as Vallow flew by and landed on his shoulder. "Now go back to the village and we'll be back shortly."

"No way...I'm coming with you." Xander said as he walked past them and boarded the ship. Not having time to argue Nail walked up behind him and looked around the ship and at it's small crew, which consisted of six men.

"Make sail, we're going to the castle."

"Ummmm, Nail. No offense but we're in the middle of a lake." Xander pointed out. "How are we gonna get from here all the way up there?"

As soon as he uttered those words, the ship jerked a bit and large artificial wings spread out in the back. As the sound of a steam engine kicked to life, the ship rose to the sky and started to take off towards the early morning sun.

* * *

Skyy was dropped face down on the floor of a big room with a vaulted ceiling, illuminated by torches stuck in wall-sconces. Her hands bound behind her back, she slowly worked herself into a sitting position. Looking around she saw that there were suits of armor crowded along the walls, making her remember the room vividly. It was the castle's council room. A room where her father had many meetings...snapping out of her bit of nostalga she wiggled around until she reached into her back pocket. Unfolding her small knife, she started to work on the ropes.

* * *

"Xander put these on." Nail was saying as the ship ascended higher into the pink sky. At first glance Xander thought that the tower only went up for about two miles, but he quickly learned that, that wasn't the case and that it actually streched more than thirty miles up.

"What are these?" Xander asked as he accepted the white gloves.

"Those are made of a special material, called ignition cloth, which will allow you to create a spark by snapping your fingers." Nail replied as he looked up to the sky. "It's an artificial form of alchemy that'll allow you to throw flames from your hands."

After putting, said gloves on his hands, Xander saw a red alchemy circle on both of them. Strangely the symbol in the middle of it seemed familiar to him.

"I can't wait to try these babies out." Xander said under his breath.

"You'll get your wish." Nail replied as he looked past him and saw dark shapes quickly approaching them. "Hard to port, we must make it to the top of the Temen-ni-gru."

"What's going on? What are those things?" Xander asked as he saw something soaring through the sky at high speeds.

"Those are dragons." Nail replied darkly. "Vallow..."

"I'm already ahead of you." the fairy said as she flew off of his shoulder and spread her little hands out. Mumbling a spell under her breath an invicible shield of energy spread across the ship, just as the first of the black dragons attacked, blowing jet streams of fire at them. "I...I can't hold this shield forever." she said straining, the shields power fading in and out.

"Just a little while longer, we're almost to the top. Xander stand ready."

"But...but, I've never done this before." Xander complained as he looked at the mystical beasts and their demon riders in awe.

"Just trust me!" Nail shouted as he summoned giant fire balls, one in each hand. "Now!"

Dropping the shield the airship landed on a makeshift air strip on the top left side of the castle. As the huge plank let down on the ship, three of the crewmen ran off as Nail turned back to Xander.

"Xander you must go and get my sister."

"But..."

"She already knows we're here, she just needs a little help getting here." Nail said looking upwards toward the sky. "Just trust me."

Before Xander could say anything more, the dragons again spread across the sky, like darkness tself. With a war cry Nail threw fireballs at them, knocking off and burning up their riders. Knowing what he had to do Xander and his group ran further along the airstrip and then down a dark corridor. Seeing an expanse of light coming from an opening, the small group went towards it. As the light flooded their eyes at the end of the tunnel, Xander looked around and saw that they were standing on top of a large balcony that over looked the valley below.

"Where do we go now, leader?" someone from the group asked, snapping Xander out of his thoughts. Looking back to him, Xander saw that it was a guy almost as young as him, with shoulder length blonde hair. And glancing back at the others he saw that all of them were barely out of their teens.

"I'll tell you where he's going." Koragg's voice boomed behind them. "He's going right into the hands of my master." with a click of his fingers, the ground began to shake violently and over ten demons of various colors and sizes materialized out of nowhere.

"Kill the ground dwellers." Koragg said as his demons ran past him. Extending his sword, he pointed to Xander and smiled under his visored helmet. "He's mine."

"Wait...wait maybe we could talk about this." Xander started as he backed up abit. 'Yeah Xander, real smooth.'

"I will not fight an unarmed opponent." the villian said as he threw a sword down at Xander's feet. "Pick it up." Not knowing what else to do, Xander did as he requested and picked up the broadsword. "Now let us begin."

Sensing a presense behind him, Koragg turned just in time to avoid a decapitating sword swipe. With a growl he saw that it was Skyy that had almost dealt him the blow.

"You." he ground out.

"He isn't ready yet, Koragg. He doesn't know of his destiny."

"Then let him know death!" the warrior shouted out as he pushed Skyy aside and slashed at Xander with a powerful chop. Taking the blow, Xander fell back and over the railing of the castle. Skyy screaming his name, Koragg's maniacal laughter, and the loud flapping of wings filled his ears as darkness claimed him.

* * *

Xander gasped loudly, then whimpered when a surge of pain ran through his body. Memories of what happened to him, flooded his mind and came at him in a jumble. He was laying on what felt like large rocks, as gentle waves crashed along the shore. Trying to move, he took in small breaths to try to calm himself. For some reason the right side of his body felt extremely numb and he couldn't move his arm. Though his eyes were shut tightly, he could almost imagine how badly his body, must've looked.

Forcing himself to open up his eyes, everything was blurry and indistinct. Even though he couldn't see clearly, he still noticed two things. One it was now night time and two Skyy was nowhere to be seen.

With an outward cry and tears cascading from his eyes, he pulled himself to his feet. Trying desperately to push through his pain, he started to think about his new predicament. One, he was in another world and away from anything he had ever loved. Not that he would miss Sunnydale much, but it was still his home. Or was it still his home. The way Buffy had ripped into him, he was sure that she might be happy that he was gone. He knew that she had every right to be angry with him, but she was talking on the verge of unrationality.

Clearing the thoughts of her out of his mind, he stopped as a blinding pain ripped through his body. Trying to shrug it off, he stood there on the beach in silence as the only sound he heard was the waves that crashed below his feet. 'Where the hell am I going anyway?'

No matter, he had to get back to the village. Starting down the path, he remembered Nail showing him, he walked quickly until he reached the forest. Or rather, what was left of it. There were trees here, undoubtedly, but they were mostly all dead. Nothing much remained of them except charred trunks with a few grizzled blackened branches. There wasn't even any grass or vegetation and the ground looked scorched and dead as the trees. It left him to wonder if this was the area his new friends warned him about that was attacked by dragons not to long ago. Even with his partial loss of sight and the darkness, he could see that the destruction went deeper and deeper.

Walking slowly forward, he went through the waste land and stumbled and fell, scrapping his knee, in unseen holes. Quickly getting up, he moved on a bit slower, so he could find his bearings. Even as he moved on a bit he stumbled again, but caught himself before he fell , all the while hearing a noise in the distance. A rise of land prevented him from seeing what it was, but he could sense that it was coming just ahead of him. He had heard the sound before, but couldn't put his finger on where though. Slowly climbing up the hill, tired from his journey, his vision cleared a little as he saw something floating in the air. In the dark he wasn't sure how far away it was, but it was moving slowly in his direction. Not seeing that the ground didn't level out below him, he fell and rolled down the steep hill. Losing conciousness before he even stopped rolling, he missed as Nail's airship cut through the veil of darkness and stopped just over his prone body.

Suddenly lights from the ship shone brightly, it's beams cutting across the darkness to illuminate Xander and the land below.

"There he is." Skyy, said loudly. Relief flooding her voice.

"Yes, I see him sister." Nail said as he pointed to his men. "Go down there and get him. And don't worry sister." he went on as he looked down at Xander and grabbed his sister's hand. "We can give him a new limb. We'll head towards Tein as soon as he's aboard."

* * *

Hearing voices Xander groggily tried to open his eyes. Seeing undistinct shapes in front of him he tried to sit up, but found that he couldn't move. Trying even harder a fresh wave of pain went through him, even as he felt a gentle hand touch his chest. As he tried to speak, he heard a gentle voice speaking over him but he couldn't understand what they were saying. After a few moments of lolling about, his vision cleared and he heard the voice that was speaking to him loud and clear.

"Xander...can you...can you hear me?" Skyy asked as he looked up to see Constance, Nail, and Skyy standing over him. The latter of whom had tears in her eyes.

"Skyy?" Xander asked woozily as he struggled to stay concious. "Wha...what's going on? Why can't I move?" he asked as Skyy and Nail gave each other a look.

"Maybe I should tell you lat..."

"Tell me now!" Xander all but shouted, more strength coming to him. Seeing the look of shock on her face he decided to calm down a bit. "Skyy please, what's wrong with me?" he asked as memories suddenly flooded his mind with familiar and unfamiliar images. He remembered fighting with Koragg and then...falling??? "Oh my, God am I...am I paralyzed?"

"No..." Skyy quickly reassured him. "Xander just tell me what do you remember?"

"Just fighting that red armored freak and then falling off the balcony of the castle." he started. "But if I'm not paralyzed then what the hell is wrong with me?"

"You...you lost your right arm." Skyy finally confessed as tears fell quickly out of her eyes. "You were trying to save my life and..."

"Shh..." Nail whispered as he pulled her into a quick hug.

Looking down to his right side, Xander saw that what she said was true. Shaking violently at the fact not even a stump was there, only a bandaged up place where it should have been, he struggled to keep his sanity.

"When Koragg attacked you he cut your arm off at the elbow." Nail started even though Xander wasn't paying much attention. "Even though we don't know how you survived the fall, we found you and brought you to the floating island of Tien. It's a medical facility and when we got here...we...we asked the doctors here to cut off the rest of your arm to the shoulder. We've already paid so that you can have an operation to have a mechanical arm called automail."

"Xander did you hear what my, brother said?" Skyy asked as she tried to take his good hand. "You're gonna be able too..."

"No." Xander whispered as he looked into her eyes. "Nooooo!!!!" getting out of bed, after his roar of rage, he pushed her away and into Nail before running unsteadily out of the room.

"Xander!" Skyy yelled out as she tried to run after him.

"Sister, no." he said grabbing her arm. "Let him go."

"Nail this is all my fault." Skyy cried as she layed her head on her brothers chest.

"No it's mine. If I hadn't of let him come this would've never happened."

"Wait, where's Constance?" she asked as she looked around the room to find her little sister gone.

Xander stood on the edge of the island's walled barrier watching as the sun's started to set in the distance. He was sure that he should've been greatful to just be alive but after losing his arm... Closing his eyes, a silent tear started to fall from his eye.

"Xander?" he heard a little voice ask from behind him. Snapping his eyes open, he turned to see Constance standing behind him with pretty pink flowers in her hand.

"Go...go back inside." Xander started as he wiped away his tears. "There's nothing to see here."

"Are you thinking about killing yourself?" she asked worriedly.

"What?"

"You can't, don't you see?" she asked as she ran forward, dropped the flowers, and wrapped her little arms around his waist. "If you die, then we all will."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, as he looked down at her.

"You're the chosen one, you have to save us. The prophecy said that you would."

'Damnit, so that's it?' Xander thought to himself. 'These people think that, I'm some kinda chosen hero.'

"Even if you're not, won't you just pretend for me?" she asked, looking up at him with soft brown eyes.

Not saying a word he held her as they just stood silently together for a long while, staring out across the early morning sky. The clouds slowly rolled towards them and as they were enjoying the peaceful moments of tranquility, Xander's body suddenly started to wrack with pain. As he slumped over, Constance went under his arm quickly and started to support him.

"Let's go back inside. The medicine the doctors gave you to kill off the pain is starting to wear off."

"Th...thank you." Xander whispered into her ear. "I'll pretend." he said before passing out.

* * *

"This is the last part of the procedure." Xander heard the doctor saying as he slipped back and forth into conciousness. "His physiology is slightly different from ours, but the implant should work just the same. Nurse give me the automailed arm."

With a deep, painful intake of breath, Xander let out such a cry of anger, and pain that it sounded like a wounded animal, as the doctor attached and clamped on his new appendage. Tears streamed down his face, mingling with the blood and saliva already there, as he saw Constance, Skyy, and Nail walk into the room.

"Doctor is he..."

"Everyoone screams like that when automail is first attached." the old physician said as he cleaned his hands in a bowl of water beside Xander's bed. "Try to move your arm boy. I need to see if the implant in your brain took."

After a few unsuccessful tries Xander's finger started to twitch, until finally he was able to lift up his metal arm and move it around slightly. He was surprised at how light his new arm seemed, he had expected it to be heavier.

"It'll take some time for you to get full use of your arm, so make sure you practice." the Doctor went on as he and his nurse walked out of the room.

"How...how are you feeling?" Skyy asked as she sat down on his bed.

"Like the doctor needs to give me another shot of that happy medicine." he started as he put his arm down to his side. "But other then the pain, I'm fine."

"Constance told me that she told you about the prophecy."

"She didn't tell me everything, but...but I still want to help." he said as he met Constance's gaze. "But only on three conditions."

"Name them." Nail said sternly. He still felt guilty over letting this happen to his new friend and he would do anything to help him.

"One, I don't want you guys lying to me anymore." he said looking pointedly at Skyy, then back at Nail. "Secondly I want you to train me on how to fight and use alchemy."

"Done. What's your final condition?"

"For somebody to get me something to eat. I'm starving."

Underworld

Sametime

"Hmmm... that boy is stronger and more resilient then I thought." Koragg said to himself as he stared into a scrying pool, watching again and again everything that had transpired since Xander's appearance into their world.

"Koragg, I give you full authority to deal with this outsider as you see fit. He no longer interests me." a voice spoke through the darkness of the underground cavern.

"Yes, my master." Koragg started, smiling under his helmet. "I will not fight a weak opponent, so I will give you time to train boy." he said staring back into the pool. "And when that time comes your blood will stain my sword."


	4. Chapter 4 All About The Journey

A/N Sorry for taking so long to add a new chapter. I hope you like the new addition.

Chapter 4

All About The Journey

Ten Months Later

The sun disappeared behind a mass of dark, threatening clouds and gathered around the mountaintops like a giant shield. Xander stared up through the branches of the forest trees and felt a cold, wet drop on his head as he sat indian style trying to meditate. Light rain pattered down, but after a few seconds the drops got bigger. Putting his head down and closing his eyes, he again went on with his meditation.

For the last ten months Nail had put him to the test, not only mentally but physically in the most grueling way possible. And with his new arm it made it that much more harder then it normally should've been. When he had finally mastered how to use the arm, to build up his strength Nail made him carry huge and very heavy stones up and down steep hills and then he had to tote large buckets of water through a trail that led up the valley's highest mountain.

To build up his speed, while he was carrying all of those heavy objects, he had five pound weights strapped to his legs. When he wasn't carrying anything, in addition to his even heavier leg weights he was made to wear a bodysuit, while running through the valley. To stimulate his mind, before bed he had to meditate. But within the last month, Nail and sometimes Skyy started to teach him how to use basic alchemy. And the top rule was humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. And that was Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange.

The wind picked up and water seeped down his neck. Turning his collar up, on his black shirt Xander tried to keep dry. After a few more moments it finally stopped raining and he opened his eyes. It was a pretty view. The sun peeped out from behind the thickening clouds, and the mountains gleamed in the light. Spring flowers spread in washes of color beneath the trees. The air smelled with a hint of pine.

The woods suddenly grew quiet. The birds stopped chirping and a strange feeling tingled along Xander's companion spine, making him tense up.

"Nail what's wrong?" Xander asked.

"We're being watched." he replied, looking around and standing to his feet.

Xander then stood up too, gazing into the advancing darkness of the woods. Both of them listened to the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves and for some reason it seemed to be an eerie sound. It was so hushed. Holding his breath Xander listened as a twig snapped.

Suddenly a sharp crack ripped through the trees and something whizzed past Xander's head, inches from his face. Leaves spun down to the forest ground, as birds shrieked. The air echoing with their frantic beating wings as they flew away. Looking back to the tree where the object hit, Xander saw that it was a small dagger. Yanking it out of the tree, he heard the shrill sounds of demons in the distance. In mere seconds over ten of Koragg's demon warriors ran out of the shadows. With a look in his eye, Xander turned to his friend and smiled.

"Practice?"

"Practice." Nail agreed, a smile on his lips as the two sprang into action.

Ducking under a demons punch, Xander high kicked it in the chest before smashing it across the head with the back of his metal fist. Feeling another one behind him he jumped back and watched as it's sword blade whizzed by his head. Doing a quick spin kick, he knocked it in the chest with his muddy boot, before pouncing forward with a sidekick that knocked another one away.

* * *

Nail slammed an elbow against one of the minion's necks, while spinning forward and kicking it in the side. Going into a rainbow kick he finished it off aswell as another one, that got to close to their fight. Not moving fast enough one of them came up beside him and got him with a hard punch to the gut. Taking the blow in stride, he did a quick handstand and snapped out a kick that crushed his opponents head.

Flinging mud into another one's face, temporarily blinding it, he turned around and flipped a demon over his shoulder, sending it to the muddy ground. Raising his foot he slammed it into its neck, ending it's life.

Suddenly the wind started to howl through the woods as Nail and Xander gathered together after beating their opponents. Before they could ask what was going on bolts of red lightning struck the ground as Koragg appeared and walked mystically through the light haze towards them.

"What the hell are you here for tin man?" Xander asked as he and Nail assumed fighting stances.

"Wolf Attack!" Koragg shouted as the front of his shield raised up, sending out blasts of energy. Not jumping out of the way quick enough the blast hurled them both off of their feet. "I've had enough of your insulance, boy." he started as they got back to their feet. "But luckily for you, I'm in a friendly mood."

"You sure as hell fooled me." Xander mumbled as Koragg growled.

"I'm going to offer you a chance to choose when you and the others die outworlder." Koragg went on, as an army of demons appeared behind him. But one impeticular stood out amongst them. It was a tall green, one horned demon with huge muscles and red eyes. "If you defeat my dark warrior Tri-clon then I will allow you six months to train, before I march my army into your village."

"And what's the other choice?" Xander asked.

"The other choice is that doomsday will come early and I'll march my army into your camp and kill you all."

"Option A it is then." Xander mumbled as he moved forward, only for Nail to grab him by the arm.

"Xander, I think that I should..."

"He didn't say you, Nail." Xander stopped him in mid-sentence. "Please just trust me to do this."

"What will it be, outworlder? Will you battle or listen to your babysitter?" Koragg asked as his minions chuckled. Letting go of Xander's arm, Nail watched as his student ran forward.

With a smile Tri-clon ran to meet him. Pouncing forward the green demon armed a sword and swung it down towards Xander's head. Seeing the blade, Xander slapped it out of the villians hand with his metal arm and punched him in the chest with his good hand. Seeing that it didn't have much effect, he dropped down and tried to kick the legs out from under it.

Jumping over the attack, the demon watched as Xander jumped into the air. Extending it's hand out an invisible pulse came out of his palm, that left Xander suspended in the air. As the power of the pulse increased the flesh around Xander's face and chest started to sizzle. Managing to clap his hands together, Xander tapped into his limited alchemetic power and made the metal on the top part of his arm turn into a blade. With an animalistic growl, he broke the demons hold and slammed the blade into it's forehead. Eyes rolling up in the back of it's head, the demon fell like a sack of potatoes. Xander right beside it.

"You have your six months." Koragg said angrily as he wrinkled his brow beneath his helmet. Stepping back, he and his minions disappeared in the shadows.

"Xander are you alright?" Nail asked as he helped Xander to his feet.

"Yeah." X replied as he wiped the bloody blade against a tree, before touching his aching back. "Never felt better."

"You're being sarcastic again, which means you're fine." Nail said as he put a hand on X's shoulder. "Come, let's tell the villagers about what's happened. The six months you bought us, should be enough to prepare everyone."

Underworld

Moments Later

Koragg walked through the ranks of his minions with a hint of a smile, under his helmet. He had to admit that he thought the battle with the outworlder would've gone on a little longer. He never dreamed that he would beat Tri-clon so easily. Which made the thought of the coming battle all the more appealing. Suddenly two of his mightiest warriors stepped out in front of him, snapping the knight wolf out of his reverie.

"What is the meaning of this?" Koragg asked as he looked at both of them in turn.

"We wanted to know why you didn't lead our men into the camp of those from the Northern woods?" the one that looked like a giant insect asked.

"Because their fates have already been chosen."

"But we could've taken them all." the demon with the ram's head went on.

"And where is the honor of fighting an opponent that's weaker then you? True might is determined through true battle with an opponent that is equal to you."

"I don't think you understand, Koragg." the ram said as he and the insect started to circle around him, weapons drawn. "We don't care."

The opponents charged at each other and the insect swung his blade towards Koragg's head. Seeing the attack, Koragg raised up his shield and pushed back the attack. Seeing the ram's scythe blade, he ducked under the blow and armed his sword. Swinging the weapon up, the blow sparked against the insect's armor, instantly killing it.

Not seeing the ram's next move, Koragg was thrown backwards and went stumbling across the ground before rising back to his knees. With an almost animalistic growl, he stabbed the ram through the gut, making it drop down to it's knee's.

"Please, Koragg spare my life." the ram begged, as Koragg stared back at him coldly through his dark visor.

"Remember what I taught you long ago, Nimrod. When an enemy asks for mercy..."

"Show him none." Nimrod whispered as Koragg sliced through him.

Red liquid splashed across his helmet's visor as he heard the sickening sound of more flesh being forced apart, as he kept chopping. Stopping the blade and removing it from what was left of Nimrod's skull, Koragg turned to the rest of his army.

"Does anyone else have any objections to my decisions?" he asked as the room fell completely silent. "Good, now someone clean this up."

The Northern Woods Village

"What happened to you two?" Skyy asked, from her position under a tree, as she saw Xander and Nail's ragged clothes. "I thought you two were just going out to meditate?"

"We were." Xander started as he sat down beside her. "But then we got into it, with some of Koragg's demons."

"Are you two..."

"We're fine sister." Nail said as he leaned against said tree and folded his arms across his chest. "And thanks to Xander we have an advantage of six moon clips head start before Koragg or any of his cronies attack us again. That reminds me, I must talk to the warriors of the village." he said as he started to walk away. "And when I return I need to talk to you about something important, Xander."

"Has he always been this serious?" Xander asked jokingly as his friend disappeared from sight.

"Always." Skyy replied with a sudden frown as she looked over at her brother. She then thought about their past together and for the first time realized that she had never seen her brother have fun. Sure he would always smile and such but he had never took time out to have fun for himself.

"You okay?" Xander asked, noticing the serious look on her face.

"Yes." she replied, snapping back into reality.

"Hey what's that?" he asked as he took a piece of cloth out of her hand. Unfolding it he saw that it was a white looking veil with pink trimming around it.

"It's for the cere... celebration tonight."

"Speaking of that this Eec..."

"Eecnaif." she pronounced for him.

"Yeah that. What is it, exactly? Am I going to a member of your royal court or is it like being somebody's BFF?"

"What does that mean?"

"Best Friends Forever."

"Yes, it's something like that." Skyy informed him as Constance ran up to them happily.

"Come on, we have to set up the decorations."

Later That Night

Children held hands and danced around a great bonfire, as Skyy and Xander stood on top of a tall podium holding hands. Using his other hand to scratch his head, Xander wondered idly what was going on and why the people around him were so happy. Not understanding the ancient tongue that the elder of the tribe was saying, he watched as Skyy handed him a bowl filled with what looked to be water.

"Drink half of this Xander and the ceremony will be over." she told him happily. After watching him guzzle down some of the warm liquid, she took the bowl from him and drank the rest. After swallowing the warm liquid, she raised up her veil and kissed him on the forehead, on both of his cheeks, and finally softly on the lips. As she did so, the mass of people started to cheer and throw white rose petals at their feet.

"Why is everybody acting like we just got married?" Xander whispered as Nail came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. Giving his sister a nasty look, he drug Xander a few yards away. "What's going on man?"

'Something that shouldn't have happened.' Nail thought to himself. "I wanted to talk to you about what I mentioned earlier. I believe that the only way that you will stand a chance at fighting Koragg is continuing your training."

"I thought you told me that you were done training me?"

"I am. I believe that the key to making you a better warrior is through life experience. So I want you to leave the safety of this village and find out what's in this world so you can build up your strength."

"When do I leave?" Xander asked, turning serious.

"Tomorrow."

As he said those words he looked up to see Skyy staring at him angrily. Not wavering on his decision, he stared back at her for another moment before walking off into the night.

The Next Day

First Sunset

As Xander slowly mounted his brown horse, on the outskirts of the village, Nail handed him a large backpack.

"That bag holds food that should last for three days and other supplies." Nail started with a sudden smile. "But the way you eat, it'll probably last only a couple of minutes."

"Hahaha." Xander replied dryly.

"Are you sure that you don't want to try to look for your friends in the scrying pool again?" Nail suddenly asked. "I believe that you are now mentally equip..."

"Let's just not worry about that right now." Xander cut him off. "I need to focus on some other things right now."

"I understand. And seriously, my friend after that food is gone, you'll be on your own."

"Just how long is this journey supposed to last anyway?"

"That'll all depend on you."

"Then, it better not be too long." Skyy started as she and Constance walked out towards them. "I still need to show you the benefits of being my Eecnaif." and as she said that word, Xander noted that she and Nail shared a dark nasty look towards one another. He had lived with them long enough to know that they were having a mental argument, but about what was still a mystery. With a nod of his head, he made a mental note to ask them about it later.

"Do you really have to go?" Constance asked, as she held on to Skyy's hand.

"Don't worry, I'll be back kiddo." Xander joked. He knew he was only a few years older then Constance, but she was so short that it gave her the appearance of a much younger child. Which in turn made Xander always call her kid. "But just in case you don't believe me, then you know I'll come back for this." he said taking off his silver crucifix necklace.

"But...but...I can't."

"It's alright." Xander replied with a wide smile as he leaned down and placed it over her head until it settled around her neck. It was his last piece of Sunnydale, since his clothes and the other items he had, had been destroyed, but if it was worth it to restore a friends faith then he would gladly give it away. Besides, it wasn't like he was wanted or needed in Sunnydale anyway. "And hey, you know I'll be back anyway. Where else do I have to go?" he asked as he gave the horse a slap with the reins and took off.

As he got further down a dirt road, he picked up his backpack and swung it in front of him. They didn't have Twinkies in this world, but they did have a pastry that was just as good, and if he knew his friend, he packed him a few. Undoing the latch, he was about to reach inside when a red light shot quickly out of the bag. As it did loops around his head, it finally fell and landed in his lap.

"Vallow?" he asked, as the little fairy tried to gasp for air. "What are you doing here?"

"I...I...I was..."

"Snooping?" Xander asked with a huge smile. He had a long time to get to know his little friend and she seemed to be just like a mini Willow, right down to babbling and snooping.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked, with her best innocent face.

"No, but it's getting too late to turn back." he said looking up at the sky. "Let's just keep going until we can find a good place to camp out for the night."

"Okay."

Falling into an uncomfortable silence, except for Vallow's occasional babbling spells, the two came into a clearing. It looked to be a good enough spot to camp out, until Xander heard someone step out from behind a tree several feet behind him. Slowing down some, he saw over ten more heavily armored boar looking demons run out in front of him, holding large bladed weapons.

"Oh no...Andabata raiders." Vallow said, frighteningly.

"Andabata?"

"Forest raiders..."

"Get off of that horse boy!" the head demon grumbled out as he picked up his spear.

"Vallow, fly up into that tree." Xander whispered to his companion.

"But..."

"Please, I don't want you to get hurt. Just do what I ask." as he said that he slowly lifted up his hands, that made a shield for her so she could fly up into a tree unseen. Doing what was asked of him, Xander slowly dismounted his horse.

"Good, boy. Now give us all of your things."

"If I don't?" Xander asked defiantly.

"Then you die."

'Maybe I should just back down.' Xander thought to himself.

"Oh who are we fooling?" the boss spoke again, as he threw his spear. "We're going to kill you anyway."

* * *

A figure watched Xander from the bushes and saw that he fought well, with a strange elegance, his body flowing like liquid, but still a little inexperienced. Grabbing the sword from one of the demons, Xander struck a few blows and tried to move away, but got cornered by a tree. A huge Andabata started slicing at him proving it to be a desperate and losing battle. As Xander's sword was slammed away the Andabata he was fighting raised his sword for the kill. Having seen enough the figure decided to strike.

With a sudden roar the figure exploded into action and swung past Xander and blocking the blow meant for him. Ducking a slash from one of the demons, he unsheathed his sword and killed him.

"Stand to your feet, friend." Xander heard a friendly yet rough voice say. Looking up through the remaining glares of light, he saw that it was a young man, with long full shaggy black hair, strong green eyes, wearing an orange head band and dark green clothing. Taking his hand the strange man pulled Xander to his feet as he turned around and continued to fight.

Tending to a wound on his arm, Xander stood back and was amazed at the dazzling display of the strange man's skill. He moved through the Andabata at amazing speed, spinning around him and protecting him. Slashing ruthlessly he pulled Xander in front of him, commanding the battle. Making sure the bleeding on his arm stopped, Xander recovered a sword and they fought together.

After a few minutes of fighting the demons lay at the two heroes feet, dead. With a smile, Xander turned to his new friend, even as Vallow flew down out of her tree.

"Thanks for the help man." Xander started as he extended a hand. "Name's Xander."

"And I'm called..." eyes rolling up in the back of his head, and sweat pouring off of his brow the stranger lost his footing and collapsed. Seconds before hitting the ground, Xander reached out and caught him.

Later That Night

As the stranger slowly came back into consciousness, he heard some wood crackling in a fire. Opening an eye, he saw a figure looming over him. With a sneer, he grabbed the figures arm and flipped him over to his side, before jumping to his feet.

"Ow..." Xander yelled out, as he sat up rubbing his sore head. "I see you're up."

"I'm sorry my friend." the stranger replied, taking a look around. "Where are we?"

"After you fell unconscious, I brought you to this campsite and Vallow treated the wound on your side." Xander explained, as the man's hand went to his side where he felt that his wound was freshly bandaged.

"Are you feeling better?" he heard a little voice ask. With a look of awe he saw a little pixie, float down from the sky and land on Xander's shoulder. He had heard stories of such creatures but had never seen one.

"Yes...yes thank you." he said as he sat down closer to the fire to warm up.

"Like I said before you passed out, my name is Xander and this is Vallow." he properly introduced himself. " Now do you mind telling me, who you are and what happened to you?"

"My name is Zedaki and I'm from the desert kingdom of Rome."

'Rome?' Xander thought to himself.

"And as for what happened to me... the Praetorians attacked my village and took me so I could be executed."

"I've heard of you." Vallow spoke up with wide eyes. "You're the prince of Rome aren't you?"

"Yes. And that's why they wanted to execute me."

Flashback

Several Days Before

Rome

The rising sun unveiled steep hills and luxuriant sandy mountains untouched by man. The unnatural presence of snow flurries darted in the frigid air and on the horizon crows gathered. A column of Praetorian Cavalry flanked two enclosed wagons as they rattled along a rock and log accordion road. On all sides desert sand rose like some kind of primordial soul: limitless and dark. With every step 'steam' whooshed from the nostrils of the horses.

Watching as they chopped the head off of his older sister, Zedaki lunged at her killer and the Praetorians subdued him slamming him with a sword hilt, knocking him unconscious.

"Take him as far as the sunrise and then kill him." Qwuntis, the leader of the Praetorian army told his four assassins. "I will destroy the rest of this village and move on to upper Rome. Meet me there when your task is complete."

Forest Road

Dawn

The three Praetorian assassins led Zedaki, who sat slumped in his saddle, along a road. Coming to a stop, their leader looked out into the distance.

"All right, this is far enough." he informed his men as the three other assassins climbed from their horses.With a wicked smirk, one of the other assassin's pushed Zedaki from his horse, making him fall to the ground hard. "You two take him down there where no one will find him."

"Come on, mighty prince..." the man said as he and his comrade drug Zedaki down a densely forested hill along the road. His hands were still bound in front of him and because of the horrors he had witnessed, he stood totally lacking in any resistance.

Zedaki suddenly eyed the two assassins as they trooped down the hill away from the road, and noted their sparkling armor. The armor of men who have never seen real battle.

"Have you ever done this before?" he asked of the assassin's

"What?"

"Killed a man with a sword?"

"Not like this, exactly..." the man said nervously. "this is good, you can stop."

As they stopped, Zedaki saw that they were far down the hill, out of sight of the road.

"It can be very messy -- you could get blood all over your armor." Zedaki went on. "You don't want to hack me up now. You want one clean stroke."

"Would you kneel, prince?" the other assassin asked of him.

Doing what was asked of him, Zedaki kneeled, his whole body secretly coiling, as the other assassin stood over him.

"One good stroke -- you do know where, don't you?"

"Be quiet!" the man yelled out in irritation.

"If you miss the spot there'll be blood everywhere. Quite a spray."

"All right, where?" he asked, letting out a sigh.

"Here, you don't want to hit the vein on the neck." Zedaki said pointing his bound hands at a spot on the back of his neck. "Put the point of your sword here... you want one, good blow right at this spot."

With a raised eyebrow the assassin dutifully put the point of his sword on the spot on Zedaki's neck. An action that would prove to be a grave mistake. Zedaki instantly grabbed the blade of the sword with his hands and yanked it from his hands. Exploding up, his hands bleeding, he tossed the sword into the air and caught it. Swinging the sword with brutal efficiency, he decapitated both assassins.

As their leader waited on his horse, he heard the commotion below and spun his horse around just as Zedaki burst to the road, standing tall with a sword. Enraged the lead assassin spurred his horse and galloped toward Zedaki at full speed. Knowing what attack to use Zedaki crouched and prepared for an attack. As number one and Zedaki swirled together for an instant, both slashing brutally, the assassin continued to gallop past him and felt an intense pain, making him stop. Looking down, he saw a huge wound in his stomach, before falling off his horse, dead.

Stumbling on his feet, Zedaki had also been wounded, a deep gash on his side. Trying to fight the pain he still fell to his knees and passed out.

End Flashback

"When I came to myself, I was being carried by some of my people back to my village. When I got there I found most of my village destroyed and my family killed."

"Aww...man, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Even though it wasn't at my hands, revenge was still exacted on my enemies, by a small band of bandits of my tribe." Zedaki started off a bit sadly. "The only one who remains is the field officer that led the charge through my village."

"So you're thinking about getting revenge on him?" Xander asked, as he passed him a piece of meat and some bread.

"Yes, but not until I get trained by Master Hiroshi Masuoka of the Eastern land. If it wasn't for my poor fighting skills in the first place, then my kingdom wouldn't have fell."

"Your poor fighting skills?" Xander asked in awe. "Z don't you think you're being a little to hard on yourself? If you hadn't of come along then me and Vallow would've died."

"I'll take your word for it." Zedaki said as he started to brood.

"Look man, I never believed in destiny before but this can't be a coincidence..."

"Coinci..."

"It can't be on accident that we met." Xander clarified, before telling him all of what happened since he arrived on Thalos. "I'm on a journey to gain more power and to learn more about this world."

"So what are you proposing?"

"I'm proposing that we partner up. These woods are dangerous and if any of us hope to make it out of here alive then we need to form a team. Besides..." Xander started with a smile. "It seems like we're going the same way now."

"Alright."

"Good, now that, that's settled I'm gonna put another log on the fire, I'm freezing." Xander said as he picked up some fire wood and threw it in the dying fire. Snapping his fingers a spark traveled out from his finger tips and re-ignited the bonfire.

"What did you just do?!" Zedaki shouted as he jumped to his feet.

"Just a little alchemy." Xander answered confused.

"The army that slaughtered my family used, alchemy." Zedaki replied, clenching and unclenching his fists. "You're apart of them aren't you? Prepare to die!" he said launching an attack. Bracing for impact, Xander prepared himself for what might be his death.

"Zedaki, calm down!" Xander shouted as he dodged a series of punches and a high kick. "I don't know who you think I am but..."

"Murderer!" was all Zedaki could manage to get out. Seeing that his new friend wouldn't listen Xander prepared himself to do battle.

He avoided his first series of attacks with some dodges, flips, and cartwheels. Going into defense Xander tried to kick Zedaki in the head with a series of jumping rainbow kicks, but he was able to quickly duck, before coming back up with a side kick to Xander's stomach, that sent him staggering back.

"That's merely a taste of the pain that's to come." Zedaki said with a sneer.

Clenching his fists, Xander snapped out a low kick even as Zedaki blocked it on his thigh. Taking a different approach Xander tried to do a leg sweep on him only for Zedaki to flip over his legs. Pushing his slight advantage, Z tried to punch him only for Xander to grab his fist inches from his face. With one punch to the stomach with his armored hand, Xander sent Zedaki to the ground clutching his stomach in pain.

"Now will you listen to me?" Xander asked. "I don't want to hurt you." as he said that Zedaki looked at him with a look of animalistic rage. Standing to his feet, he crouched into a low position, then bolted towards Xander, seemingly taking on the appearance of a wolf. "What the..."

"Xander!" Vallow yelled out, but it was already to late as Xander fell to the ground unconscious. "What did you do?" she questioned as she floated down and hovered over Xander. Snapping back to himself, Zedaki looked down at his bloody hands, then down at Xander who had small amounts of blood trickling out of his mouth and out of his chest. Did he just perform alchemy?

"Wha... Xander...I."

"Get out of here!" Vallow yelled angrily as she shot small puffs of magic at him. "Xander was only trying to be your friend and look what you did to him."

Blood pumping, without looking back, Zedaki turned and fled into the woods. With a tear in her eye Vallow floated down and sat on Xander's chest. Seeing that if nothing were done soon, that Xander would die, her hands crackled with magic as she thought up what to do.


	5. Chapter 5 Whispers In The Dark Woods

Chapter 5

Whispers In The Dark Woods

'God what is that smell?' Xander thought to himself, as he struggled to come back to consciousness. Whatever it was, it almost smelled worse then his gym socks. Hearing the soft hoof beats of horses, he forced his eyes open and saw that he was in the back of a huge wagon. Painfully moving his head, he almost gagged as he saw what was causing the awful odor. It was the dead, mutilated bodies of dozens of people and demons.

Finally losing it, he sat up and threw up on the dead body he was laying on. Feeling something hit his legs, he looked down and saw Vallow laying on him, unconscious and deathly pale.

"Val?" he asked as he cradled the little fairy in his hands. Not getting a response, he put her closer to himself and took another look around. Seeing an opening at the end of it, he scooted up to the front and looked out. They were still traveling in the woods, but it was now broad daylight. Feeling something hit his boots, he looked down to his feet and saw his backpack. Scooping it up with his metal arm, he took another look behind him at the rotting bodies, before jumping out the back of the wagon.

Landing on his knees, he cursed himself for not bracing his legs for impact, so he could've landed on his feet. Dropping the bag, he stood up and looked down towards his now awakening friend.

"V? V are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"Y...yes." she replied with a weak smile.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, vaguely remembering the events of last night.

"After Zedaki attacked you last night, you were dying." she said sadly, lowering her head. "So I used some of my life energy to keep you alive." taken off guard by his action, Vallow was unprepared for when Xander leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head.

"Thanks, I owe you one." he said as he saw her frown up at him. "Did I do something wrong?"

"That wasn't right. You...you're Skyy's Eecnaif."

"Yeah, so." Xander said with a raised eyebrow. "That just means we're friends." as he said that he noticed a look cross the tiny woman's face. "That does mean we're friends right?"

"Maybe I shouldn't..."

"Vallow!" Xander replied harsher then he wanted to be. He was just so sick of so many lies.

"You...you're Skyy's beloved and the new king of Thalos."

"What!!!!" Xander screamed, making birds screech and fly out of their nests all through the forest.

* * *

"Tell me about this Xavier guy." Xander was saying as he started his trek through the woods, with the little fairy on his shoulder. He didn't know where he was going but standing still didn't sit well with him. Especially considering since the last time he sat still he was put on the back of a death cart. "I thought that they were really in love."

"Not exactly." she said as she started to eat into a little berry. It was nice to be carried around sometimes. "Before the fall of the above kingdom, Xavier and Skyy were promised to each other when they were born. Even though the kingdom's gone now they still had to abide by it's rule and get married. Skyy tried pushing back the wedding as long as she could, but the wedding went on anyway."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense. She wasn't in love with the guy." 'But why does that seem like a big relief to me?' Xander thought to himself. "But why did she wanna marry me? I mean we basically just met."

"Not really." Vallow muttered as she finished her snack.

"What did you just say?" Xander asked, turning only to find her with a look on her face that read, I really wasn't supposed to tell you that. "Ah, Ah." he stopped her from trying to make up an excuse. "Spill. Me and Skyy knew each other before I got here?"

"Yes." Vallow said as she stood to her feet. "I was there when you two first met and this is what I remember." as she said that her hands started to softly glow as she put her hands on his temples.

Flashback

Thirteen Moonslips Ago

Before The Fall Of The Above Kingdom

A tall thin man in his late sixties, walked tiredly out of a room and closed the door behind himself. Looking up at a powerfully built man that stood before him he took off his glasses and started to clean them before he spoke.

"I've done all that I could but your daughter might not make it through the night." the elderly physician spoke. "The Dark Necture Phage has nearly completely taken over her body."

"I don't understand." King Edward started. "I thought that she was getting better?"

"She was, but this is more then medicine and cures." the doctor stopped him. "Princess Skyy believes that she will die. And if she believes it, so will her body."

* * *

Sweating heavily and skin turning a light shade of brown, a six year old Skyy stood out of bed and walked unsteadily on her weak legs. She knew that she was going to die soon and she didn't want to die on her back looking up at the ceiling. Losing strength in her legs, she tripped and caught her balance pulling down a sheet that covered a full length mirror in the process. Looking up at it, she frowned as she saw her sweaty reflection. Her grandfather had given her the mirror a few months ago, before he died, but she didn't tell him that she hated the thing.

"Princess are you alright?" Vallow suddenly asked as she flew into the room, from an open window. Turning Skyy gave her a dark look that seemed to say 'what do you think', before her sweaty hand touched the mirror.

'Maybe I should just go back to bed.' she thought to herself as she looked back at it. Before she could steady herself to walk towards it, she suddenly heard a boy's voice. Turning she saw a little boy with his back turned to her playing with something.

"What's going on here?" Skyy asked herself aloud. A little too loud because the boy heard her. Stop playing with his toy truck, he turned and with wide eyes he saw her.

"H...hi." the little boy said shocked to see someone else staring back at him.

"Hi." Skyy replied back with a bemused smile.

"You're pretty." the boy said in a whisper as he lowered his head in nervousness. He said it so low that he didn't think that she would hear it, but she did. Not taking the compliment well, because of what was happening to her she snapped.

"I'm ugly and dying you twit!" she shouted in outrage. Head snapping up because of the outburst and the insult, even though he didn't understand what it meant, the boy's eyes glistened with tears. Seeing the hurt in his eyes, Skyy instantly regretted overreacting, especially when he broke into tears.

"Wait, I'm sorry." Skyy told him gently before he could step away from the mirror. "What's your name?"

"My name is, Alex." the boy replied as he wiped at one of his eyes with the back of his hand. "But my friends call me, Xander."

"My name is, Skyy." she replied her illness long forgotten. Suddenly Vallow flew down and sat on Skyy's shoulder.

"Whoa!" Xander yelled out in awe. "Tinkerbell."

End Flashback

"I...I remember that now." Xander said as he folded his arms and leaned against a moss covered tree. "That was the summer that I stayed over my grandma's house. It was...God that was so long ago. I thought that she was just a dream."

"Because of you, Skyy had the will power to beat the Phage and she was cured."

"So that's why her skin is darker then the others." Xander pondered.

"And that's why she married you." Vallow spoke up. "Don't you remember your promise?"

"What are you..." he stopped as he thought about what she was talking about. Him and Skyy were talking for, what had to be a couple of weeks, and the day before he left for home he had asked the pink haired girl to marry him.

"You two remind me so much of Peter and Wendy." Vallow said as she rested back on Xander's shoulder.

"What?" Xander asked as he looked down to see Vallow fast asleep. 'Was she talking about Peter Pan and Wendy. I thought they were just a fairy tale.' he thought to himself. He had talked to Nail about the little fairy before and he had told him to not let her young looks fool him and that she was over three hundred years old.

Putting his backpack on the ground, while cradling her with one hand, he searched through his pack only to find all of the food gone. Suppressing the urge to let out a sigh and a curse, he closed the pack up and laid Vallow on top of it. Happy that her color was returning to her, he picked up the entire pack and started to tote it in front of himself as he walked through the forest in the search for food. On his walk he disregarded several berries and strange looking fruit because he didn't know if they were poisonous or not.

Nail had taught him some survival techniques and what fruits to look out for, but honestly he wasn't paying attention. Cursing himself for the second time that day he continued his walk. Hearing the loud current of water ahead, he sprinted into a slight jog and ran up to a river. With a smile he put the pack down and reached into the side of it, taking out a small collapsible fishing rod. Finding a small batch of grub worms close to the river bed, he cast out his line and started to fish.

As he waited for a fish to take the bait, his mind wondered to when he was young and used to go with his dad fishing. Not that he would tell anybody but his father was a very kind man... that was before he started to heavily drink. No he used to be a good and caring father but as time dragged on he became an abusive drunk. Feeling a yank on the string, he snapped out of his reverie and saw that he had snagged a fish. Yanking it out of the water he winced a little as he saw how it was. Even though he had been on the planet for over ten months now, he still couldn't get over the fact that this dimensions fish looked like an eel. Catching more of them, he stringed all of them together, before placing a group of stones in a circle. Throwing some leaves and twigs into the middle of the stone circle, he snapped his fingers making a small spark. Throwing it on the leaves he smiled as it ignited, growing in a huge bonfire.

Gutting and deboning the fish, he put sticks through them before placing them over the fire and watching as they slowly started to cook. Her little nose twitching from the good smell, Vallow opened her eyes and smiled.

"Mmmm, that fish smells good." she said as she flew in the air and sat on Xander's shoulder.

"Yeah, I finally learned how to cook something right." her companion mused. 'I just wish that I had a Twinkie right now.' he thought making him think more of earth. But as he thought about it, it really wasn't all that bad being on Thalos. There wasn't really any pollution, he had new friends that actually counted on him for something other then getting donuts, he was now the king, and he had a beautiful woman whose smile was as bright as both of the suns. 'Whoa.' Xander thought to himself. 'Where did that last one come from?'

Going back into his reverie he also thought about how much he lost. He still couldn't understand why Buffy was overly mad at him, but he guessed he'd figure that out if and when he made it back home. And then there was Giles. He had never learned if his condition had gotten better or worse. Not wanting to worry about that now, his thoughts wandered to his best friend Willow. She would get a kick out of being here. Picking up his fish, he started to laugh to himself as he and Vallow ate.

"I'm the King of Thalos."

As he mumbled that the both of them suddenly felt the land under them shake. Giving each other a questioning look, they saw as leaves started to shake loose from the tree they were sitting under. Looking up they saw that the thirty foot tall tree now had a wooden face and was smirking down at them crazily.

"Oh no!" Vallow shouted as she flew up on Xander's shoulder. "A tree orge."

"You are the king of Thalos?" the thing asked with a harsh sounding laugh. "We'll see about that."

Scooping Vallow up into his arms, Xander managed to dive into a roll, just as the orge slammed a bat shaped tree trunk into the ground. Looking back Xander saw the thing lifting it's legs out of the ground and come running angrily after them. The ground shaking underneath him, Xander turned, snapped his finger and threw a small ball of fire at the things face. With a laugh the orge smacked the ball into nothingness before continuing his thunderous run.

Heart pounding Xander tripped over an uprooted tree branch and fell flat on his back. Taking the fall in stride he tried to get up, only to find the monster standing over him with it's tree club held up high.

"Goodbye, mighty king." it said lowly, as he was about to crush them both. But that was something, that didn't happen as a fiery stream of energy shot out and engulfed the tree ogre in flames. Screaming his last scream the monster fell over and as fire usually did it consumed all.

Sitting there in awe, Xander and Vallow looked up to where the beam of energy came from and they saw a cloaked figure sitting on top of a high hill with it's hand outstretched in a pyramid shape. Before Xander could call out to the figure he or she walked into the shadows and dissappeared into nothingness. As he was about to call out to the figure he and Vallow were swept away in a blinding white light.

His eyes finally coming into focus, Xander found himself sitting in an all white room, with Vallow sitting beside him. Giving her a curious glance, he stood to his feet as she spread her wings out and flew into the air, only to sit on his shoulder.

"Hello?" Xander asked aloud as he stood to his feet and looked around. "Is anybody here?"

_"Why were you walking through the dark woods, young one?"_ a raspy old voice asked out of nowhere.

"Who are you?"

_"Are you truly the new King of Thalos?"_ yet another voice asked.

"What's going on?!" Xander all but shouted out, as hushed voices began to whisper. "Who are you people?! Where am I?"

As he asked that the voices stopped whispering and the room fell silent once again. Looking over to a far corner, he saw that out of a beam of light a figure was walking towards him. When said figure got closer he saw that the person was wearing a dark cloak. It was the same person that had saved him and Vallow from the tree orge.

"Where you are and who we are is not important, Alexander." the person before him spoke. Just by listening to them, he knew that it was an older man. "But what you must become is."

"How do you know my name?" Xander asked, only for him to see the old man smile from under his hood. "Nevermind. But at least tell me..."

"In your mind you believe that you've only been here for a minute." the old man spoke again, cutting him off. "But you've actually been here for a day in Thalonian time. And in that time we were able to read your mind. We know of Koragg, Wrath, and their master Dai-Satan."

"Who is..."

"Dai-Satan was an entity of long ago that tried to take over this world and all other dimensions. But he was defeated by Master Hiroshi Masuoka of the Eastern land and was sealed into the Dark Woods."

"But he's back and he's controlling Skyy's uncle." Xander spoke up. "That's why I was walking through the woods, so I could try to find Master Masuoka, so he could train me too..."

"I'm afraid it's to late for that my son. Master Masuoka died sealing Dai-Satan away with his Mafūba. His Evil Containment Wave." the old man went on, seeing the blank look on the younger man's face.

"So what do we do, now?" Vallow's small voice finally spoke up. "We came all this way to be trained and our only hope is dead."

"That was the reason why we summoned you here. We are...what you would call the Powers That Be of this dimension." Cloak told them both. "Dai-Satan was once one of us, but had turned to doing evil's bidding. We are unable to attack him while he is on Thalos but we can bend the rules some." he said as an orange swirling portal opened up behind Xander. "Even though Master Masuoka is dead, he still directly or indirectly influenced or helped the lives of many fighters in many dimensions. I have arranged it so for you to train with just a few of them to build up on your power."

"So what I just go through this portal?" Xander asked skeptically. "How do I know this isn't some kind of trick?"

"If we wanted you dead, we would have killed you while you were sleeping." Cloak told him. "Now young king are you ready?"

"It's not like I have much choice." Xander said as he and his companion shared a look. Before he knew what was going on he was surrounded by golden light and his clothes changed into a uniform that consisted of a black short sleeve shirt, with a long white sleeveless overcoat over it and black pants. It also had two black chinese symbols on the back of the overcoat that meant strength and dragon. As the light dissapated he looked to his shoulder and saw that he had a backpack on and that Vallow had a similar martial arts suit on.

"Go now. You must meet one last friend that is... connected to the Slayer. After you find your friend you will go through another portal where a fighter will be waiting for you."

"Wait how long will I be gone?"

"That all depends on you." Cloak replied as he handed Vallow a tiny silver ring. "You must go through the trials along with your companion little one. When the time comes you will know what to do with this. Now go."

"Wait..." Xander called out, before he and Vallow were sucked through the portal.

_"Master it's time now for you to rest."_ a gentle voice said from the shadows.

"I know." the old man replied, removing his hood, revealing himself to be an old asian man. With a sigh after looking back at the portal, Master Masuoka walked back into the light and disappeared into nothingness.

* * *

With a scream on his lips Xander fell from several feet in the sky and landed smack dab onto his face. With a groan he sat up and looked at Vallow who was floating harmlessly above him.

"I gotta work on my landings."

"I was thinking the same thing." she replied as she sat on his shoulder after he stood up. "Where do you think we are?"

"I don't know." he said looking around at the forest area and seeing that it was now night time. And for some reason his body seemed so light, making him remember that the gravity of Thalos must have been alot higher then whatever place they were on now. _I wonder how fast I can run here?_ "But it looks kinda like the same place where we started out from."

"What's that noise?" Vallow suddenly asked as she looked off into the distance.

"What, I don't hear..." before he could continue, he looked up and saw a scared young black woman around his age with long braided hair running for her life. At the time he saw that she was looking over her shoulder and wasn't watching where she was going. Before he could issue out a warning she crashed into him. But instead of going down in a heap like he thought he would, he barely felt the impact of her body. Holding on to her their eyes met for the briefest of seconds and he knew that she was the one that he came to get.

Breaking their eye contact, she tried to push away from him only for him not to move an inch. Looking up at him again in shock her eyes widened as she heard the demons that were chasing her coming in all directions. But she saw in his eyes that he felt them coming too, and she was surprised that he seemed calm, even when he pushed her behind himself as eight vampires, already in game face came out of the darkness and started to surround them.

"Stay behind me." Xander said lowly to the girl as he took off his backpack and as Vallow flew off of his shoulder and onto hers.

"Don't worry Xander, she'll be safe." the little fairy said, extending a shield around them.

"Look boys." a large black vampire with dred locks said to his underlings in a thick Jamaican accent. "Dis bitch don led us to dessert."

"We'll see who the bitch is when this is all said and done."

"Dis boy is fiesty." another vamp said to his master. "Let's turn him."

"What into a punk like you?" Xander replied with a huff. "I'll pass."

"So what boy... we're supposed to dress up like you?" another one asked, looking up and down at his uniform. "You blood..."

"Enough of dis banter." the master told them all. "I'm hungry."

With a growl the vampires surged forward. Bracing for the attack Xander blocked a blow, then grabbed the arm of his attacker and used it to punch another demon as he charged. Sensing one approaching Xander kicked out behind himself, kicking away another demon, and as for the one he was holding, he twisted his head around, breaking his neck. As the vampire crumbled into dust Xander clapped his hands together to get the dirt off.

"What?" he asked as the other vampires stared at him.

Angered a demon attacked him with a knife and he grabbed his arm in both hands, paused to kick another demon away behind him, swung the one with the knife around and threw him into another demon, shoved another one away, then ducked and punched one, ducked and punched again.

Looking around himself Xander was suddenly surrounded by demons hitting him with various weapons, making him huddle down on the ground under their blows. Suddenly with a surge of energy he sprung back up again, throwing them off before kicking one in the groin and knocking two more down with him.

"It's time for dis game to end."

"My thoughts exactly." Xander replied with a snap of his finger. At first he thought that only a small flicker of fire was going to appear on his finger tip but even he was surprised when the small spark changed to the size of a volleyball. Snapping out of his own amazement he threw it at the approaching horde and watched as they screamed and fell to the ground, instantly turning them into ash.

"Are...are you a Warlock?" the young black girl asked as Vallow lowered the shield that was around them both. She was asking not only because of the fireball that he produced but because when he fought he looked like nothing but a blur.

"The term is Man- Witch." Xander 'corrected.' "And no I'm an Alchemist. Are you okay?" he asked as she started to wobble on her feet. And for the first time he took a closer look at her and saw that her clothes were torn, she was a bit bruised and had a small scratch above her left eyebrow.

_Those blood suckers really did a number on her._

"I'm...I'm fine." she replied as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she began to pass out. Before she fell to the ground, the last thing she felt was the stranger holding her tightly and nothing as she fell unconscious.

* * *

Hearing the crackling of a fire and feeling a bit better, the girl groggily opened her eyes and tried to look at her surroundings. Wiping the sleep out of her eyes, she made them come into focus and when they did she looked up and nearly screamed as she saw a very tiny woman with red hair and wings, sitting on a log of which her head was now propped on.

"Hi." the little woman said simply.

"Identify yerself!" the mocha colored woman said as she jerked up, fully awoke. "What are you?"

"She's a fairy." she heard a voice say, making her turn around with a wince, as her neck strained. Fighting through the pain, she watched as the boy that saved her walked towards her with a basket full of fruit.

"What's going on?" she asked as she tried to stand, only for er to get dizzy and sit back down. "Who are you?"

"Take it easy." Xander tried to calm her down as he put the basket of fruit on the ground. When the girl had fell unconscious he had walked into town and found that he was back on Earth, in Jamaica. After talking to some people in town he convinced them to give him some fruit for free. He thought about calling home, but he didn't see the point of it because he was leaving again anyway. "Your wounds aren't all the way healed yet."

"Who...or what are you people?!" the girl demanded, making Xander let out a sigh.

_So much for being diplomatic_

"My name is Xander and this is Vallow..." Xander started as he began to tell her about him leaving earth and then going to Thalos and his mission to destroy Dai-Satan.

"Do you tink me ignorant?" the girl who identified herself as Kendra asked as she stood to her feet.

"Kendra I admit that what I told you sounds crazy." he reasoned. "But I mean look at me?" he said making her look at his mechanical arm. "I mean I'm with a freakin fairy for God's sake."

Seeing that she again was looking at him skeptically he lightly grabbed her arm. "Kendra listen, I'm not here to try to trick you. Everything I just told you was the complete truth."

"I must report dis to me, Watcher."

"Your Watcher?" Xander asked with wide eyes. _God is Buffy dead? _"Kendra are you a Slayer?"

"No. How do you know of de Slayer?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

"That's another story all together. Now let's go and see your Watcher."

Mr. Zabuto's House

Sometime Later

Mr. Zabuto's house, or lack there of was really more of a small rundown two bedroom shack. Keeping his composure Xander sat there as Mr. Zabuto lectured Kendra on going without him to destroy the small vampire nest. She was only supposed to do a little recon and not engage the enemy at that time. The man was short, black, and about the same age as Giles. He even wore spectacles and wore tweed. But those similarities to his father figure ended there.

This man seemed to be everything Xander was told other Watchers were. He seemed, smug, arrogant, and even downright cruel from the way he was talking to Kendra. He could tell that he cared for her sure... but the way he spoke to her was similar to the way his father talked down to him.

_I don't know how long I can keep this up. If he keeps talking to her like that I'll..._

"Alexander... Alexander are you listening?" Mr. Zabuto asked, snapping him out of his wonderings.

"Huh, yeah...I mean yes sir." Xander replied, deciding to be respectful as possible.

"I wanted to thank you for saving my charges life, but as for your request I cannot allow her to leave."

"But..."

"No but's..." Zabuto said with a frown. According to the reports that he was aloud to read from the Council about the boy, he was nothing more then a goof ball. "Now I'm sorry to have wasted your time but I want you to leave."

Kendra had wanted to ask him why he needed her help in the first place, but she kept her tongue. She wasn't a slacker when it came to fighting, but she had to admit that by what little she had seen of his abilities that he was clearly the superior fighter.

Angry at what was said Xander stood to his feet, Vallow floating behind him. But as his hand touched the door knob he turned around to face the older man one last time.

"Before I go let me tell you something. Without Kendra's help the planet of Thalos will be destroyed." seeing that the man had a look of indifference on his face, he continued. "And what do you think is gonna happen when Dai-Satan gets finished with that world? He's gonna come here and..."

"Dai-Satan?" Zabuto asked with wide eyes, as Xander nodded his head. "I must inform the Council of this development." as he said that a portal opened in the small living room, blowing books and paper around. "What's happening?"

"Times up." Xander replied simply. "It's now or never Mr. Zabuto. Either we all go or me and Vallow go alone, but I'm telling you that if we fail..."

"Kendra let's go." Zabuto replied as he grabbed a small worn leather bag and filled it with a few small weapons and a crossbow. _I'll deal with the Council when I get back... if I get back._ He thought bitterly.

"Yes, sir." the beautiful mocha colored girl said as he tossed the bag to her.

"Alright, let's do this." as they all went though the portal, Mr. Zabuto, Vallow, and Kendra landed harmlessly on the sandy ground while Xander again fell face first onto the ground with a scream.

"Are you alright, Alexander?" Zabuto asked, with a hint of a smile in his voice.

"Yeah peachy." he replied as he stood to his feet and brushed some stray sand off of his uniform. Breathing deeply, he smelled the salty ocean and watched as seagulls flew about in the distance. Taking another quick look around as the sun started to fade in the horizon, he saw that they were on a very, very, very small island with an even smaller shack in the middle of it with the word Kame written on the side of it.

As they were about to walk towards said shack, they all heard ear splitting laughter coming from it. Whoever it was must've been having a good time, they concluded.

"Hello." Xander said walking towards the door and knocking on it. Just by the light tapping the door swung open. Giving each other a look, the group all walked in and followed the laughter to what would be considered a living room or a den. Sitting in front of a television set was a short fragile old bald man, with a thick goatee and mustache. He wore beach clothes and a turtle shell on his back. Looking at the set they saw that he was watching no leering at a group of pretty women that were exercising in tight spandex clothes.

"1...2... 1...2..." he said along with the aerobic instructor with a dry laugh, as he swayed back and forth.

"I hope this isn't the guy I'm supposed to learn from." Xander muttered more to himself, as Vallow nodded her agreement.

"Believe me Alexander all is not as it seems." Zabuto replied, giving the other older man a look. "Excuse me, sir."

"Hey can't you see, I'm busy?" the Turtle Hermit asked, not looking up at them.

_Maybe Alexander was right. _the old Watcher thought to himself.

After watching the old man sway for a few more minutes, the program finally ended making him let out a sigh.

"Good, workout." he said standing to his feet and looking the group over, before finally settling on looking at Kendra. If he weren't wearing dark sunglasses the gang would've seen that his eyes were bulging out, among other things. It had been a long time since he had seen a beautiful woman and the one before him was simply gorgeous. "Whoa momma!!!! Hey, I'm the Turtle Hermit and greatest Martial artist in the world, Master Roshi and you are?"

"Underage." Xander said stepping in front of the old perverts line of vision of Kendra.

_Damn!_ "Well you win some and you lose some." the old man said with a short laugh. "Now why are you people here? What do you want?"

"We want for you to train us." Xander replied, calming himself down.

"Sorry kid." Roshi said turning his back to them. "I don't take on students anymore. I'm also a very busy man and I have much work to do."

"What? You mean we came all this way for nothing?" Xander asked.

"Fraid so. Don't let the door hit you on the way out." Roshi said waving them off.

"The Powers That be couldn't have lied to us." Vallow spoke up. "He had to have known Master Masuoka."

"Who said that?" Roshi asked as he turned around and looked at the group again. After a moment he spotted Vallow sitting on Xander's shoulder. _Damn she's too small._"And what do you know of Masuoka?"

"Only that you knew of him."

"It's true I did know Masuoka many years ago." Roshi told the fairy as he looked at Xander again and then at the uniform he was wearing. He was representing the house of the dragon. Masuoka's house. "I'll let you know about training tomorrow. There's a bedroom upstairs so you two can sleep up there." he said pointing to Xander and Mr. Zabuto. "And you two girls can sleep down here with me." he said with a laugh, just as the group glared at him. "What, it was worth a shot."

A/N To answer a question before it's asked, no Kendra isn't a Slayer yet, just a potential. I'm debating on if I want her to turn into one in this fic. Also Master Roshi won't be the only one training Xander and the others in this fic, expect him to travel to some other dimensions where he will meet some powerful people, most will be other anime characters. I also originally planned for Wendy to be Xander's great-grandmother.

Also if Xander hadn't have been there Kendra would've made it home and collasped at the door as Mr. Zabuto warded off the vampires with a cross.


	6. Chapter 6 The Turtle Hermit Way

A/N On this version of earth a week is only a few days in Thalonian time. Also this takes place a few years before Master Roshi first met Goku and Krillin, so they won't be in the story. Also sorry for the super long time in updating. I'm going to try my best to finish this story soon. I'm also going to upload another chapter after this so enjoy.

Chapter 6

The Turtle Hermit Way

Master Roshi's Island

744 A.D.

Startled out of his slumber Xander awakened to the sound of labored breathing. Sitting up off of the pallot that he, Mr. Zabuto, and Master Roshi were sleeping on, he saw that the latter was gone. Standing to his feet, he stepped around the still sleeping Watcher and walked outside where he heard the heavy breathing coming from. As he did so he saw Master Roshi, with his back turned to him, facing the sea with his shirt off cupping his hands and mumbling something. Looking at his body Xander saw how small and decrepit it truly was, although he could sense that the old man was a warrior in his younger years.

Not knowing why but Xander stood there transfixed expecting something spectacular to happen. And in just a moment it did.

"Ha!!!!" Roshi yelled out as a long violent stream of blue energy came out of the palm of his hands and went into the sea parting it like Moses parted the red sea. "I still got it baby." the old man said with a husky laugh as he reached down beside himself and picked up his shirt. "So what did you think boy?"

"Um..." not sure how to answer Xander just stood there as Roshi turned around and smiled at him and as the others walked out of his house. "I want to learn that move from you."

_Maybe in about fifty years..... _Roshi thought loosely to himself.

"You and your friends aren't worthy of wearing the uniforms of Masouka's house." their new master told them. "Not yet anyway. So put on those warm ups." he said pointing at dark orange colored clothes by the door. "Your training is about to begin."

Waiting until they got dressed, after peeking at Kendra and Vallow (who had used her magic to create a uniform, since Roshi couldn't make one small enough) a couple of times, Master Roshi took a Capsule Corp. capsule out of his pocket and threw it on the ground. As he did so, it exploded and a small flying vehicle came out of it. Explaining to them that they needed to move to a bigger island to train, they all hopped in and flew over the country side until they found a much bigger island that already had a house similar to their master's on it. Taking them out onto an old dirt road, he took a stop watch out of his pocket and looked from one end of the dirt street to the other.

"I assume that both of... I mean all three of you know what a punch and a kick are?" Master Roshi started off as he looked from Kendra to Xander, and then to Vallow of whom was sitting on Mr. Zabuto's shoulder. "So we'll skip that part of the lesson today. Right now I want to evaluate your strengths to see how much work we have to do. Hmmm let me see..." he said taking off his turtle shell. Tossing it like a frisbee it hit a rock several feet away, crushing it. "That's about a hundred meters isn't it?" he asked himself as he looked over to Xander. "Alright kid, you're up first. Let's see how fast you can move."

Waiting until Master Roshi and the others walked over to where the shell was Xander crouched down low and got into position.

"Are you ready?" Roshi asked as Xander nodded. "Go!" standing to his feet Xander gave it his all, as he ran down the road and past the others, stopping when he ran past the turtle shell.

"How....how did I do?" Xander asked, between breaths, putting his hands on his hips.

"Seventeen point five seconds." Roshi said looking at the stop watch. "Not bad. Alright cutie pie you're up next." he said as her Watcher gave the older man a look. Ignoring the old man's gaze Kendra got into position. "Go!" as her body moved gracefully past the others, the old turtle hermit smiled inwardly as he gazed at Kendra's bouncing chest.

_Thank Kame she isn't wearing a bra....._ the old pervert thought to himself as Kendra ran past the finish line. "Hmmm, fifteen point two seconds. You just set the new standard."

"Tank you, Master." she replied giving Xander a smug smile as she stood next to him, barely breathing heavily at all. It was unfair really, because her Watcher had trained her to run like that years ago.

"Okay, you're next little one." Roshi said to Vallow as she flew off of Zabuto's shoulder.

"I hardly see how this is fair." Zabuto spoke up. "Her legs are small and..."

As he started to talk Vallow eyed the small ring that she took out of her little pocket. For some reason at that moment it was like, it was calling her. Compelling her to put it on. So she did. Hearing shocked gasps she looked around and saw the gang staring at her. "What...."

"Wow...I...I mean wow." Xander said looking at her nervously. Looking down at herself she didn't notice a difference in her appearance until she saw her legs touching the ground. Conjuring up a mirror her suspicion was confirmed, she was now the same size as the others and she had to admit that she looked hot. Her red hair was long and nearly touched the ground, her wings were gone, she had pouty lips, and some of the most intense brown eyes she had ever seen. Putting the mirror away she looked up to see Xander and Master Roshi drooling at the sight of her. Even Mr. Zabuto had his eyebrows raised.

"So ummm... you want me to stand over there?" she asked, hoping that the boys would snap out of their stupor.

"You can stand on me if you want too. I...I mean yes..." Roshi said wiping a small speck of drool that was on his lower lip. "Now get ready. Go!" as she ran unsteadily on her legs, it could be seen by all that she was running relatively slower then the others. As she finally made it towards the finishing line, Roshi let out a sigh as he read her time. "Twenty eight point five seconds. I see that you've depended on your wings for far too long. I'll have to work with you on a more hands on basis, hehehe. Hey hold this for a second." he said tossing the stop watch into Xander's hands as he started to stretch. "I want you to record one more time."

"Whose?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow. _He can't be talking about himself. He'd kill himself._

"Of course, I'm talking about me!" Roshi yelled out, as if reading his mind. And in this case he was. "Now just take my time."

"Okay, ready, set, go!" as he said that, Master Roshi ran so fast that they all had trouble keeping up with his movements, but they knew that he passed them because of the dust and huge gust of wind that flew past.

"Time?" Roshi asked, still in his running pose.

"Five se...seconds flat." Xander replied nervously.

"Now do you see? If you train with me I'll have you all moving like lightning." he went on with a devilish smile. "But first...." he stopped to pick up his turtle shell and two others. "You have to wear these."

Taking the preoffered shells, the teens nearly fell to the ground at the sheer weight of them. Vallow actually did fall, not used to carrying anything so heavy.

"God, this thing weighs a ton." Xander replied, finally putting the shell on his back.

"Not exactly. It weighs oh around fifty pounds or so." Roshi cut in. "You don't have to put them on now, but I wanted you to know that after a few weeks of my exercise regiment you're gonna be required to wear those in addition to various activites. You're going to eat, sleep, and train with those babies on."

"What kind of activities?" Xander asked, making the hermit smile yet again.

It was a question that he soon regretted asking. For the next month the three of them had to deliver milk across the country side, by foot through the mountain areas and through the forest. And that was just the early morning exercise. After getting something to eat, they were out again to do a little "farming" of which they had to literally do by hand. But what was tougher was when they had to do all those activities with fifty pound turtle shells on their backs.

After about another month and a half Roshi informed them that they not only had to deliver milk, but this time he had gotten them jobs at a construction site where they amazed everyone with their speed and strength while picking up and carrying heavy objects. Seeing that they had properly mastered the art of carrying fifty pound turtle shells, he made them start to carry one hundred pound turtle shells. Looking down at their bodies the teens saw that their bodies were no longer just lean, but were now starting to grow muscles. They weren't quite chiseled but their bodies were cut.

Finally getting up earlier then the Master himself one day Kendra, Xander, and Vallow stood in front of the door of the house, waiting for him to get up. It didn't take long as Mr. Zabuto and then Roshi walked out of the house.

"You three are up, early." Roshi said looking at his students. "You're eager to train, I see? Well I hate to inform you, but your training with me is complete."

"What?" it was Kendra to question. Usually she wouldn't question her superior, but this wasn't right. "Did we do someting wrong?"

"No my dear." the old hermit said with a smile and a chuckle. "You did everything right. All of you have exceeded my expectations."

"Then why aren't you teaching us?" Xander asked. "We haven't even learned a single fighting move from you."

"Martial arts isn't just about how fast you can throw a punch and a kick, my boy. It's also about training hard and having determination. It's up to you to develop your own fighting style, not merely copy mine. And that is the Turtle Hermit way."

"Well atleast tell us why we had to wear these stupid shells?" Vallow asked, frustrated. Looking up at her Master she apologized and lowered her head.

"Why don't you take them off and see for yourself." Zabuto spoke up for Roshi, thinking that he would suggest the training regiment to the Watcher's council when he got home. Doing as he asked, Xander and the others took off their shells and immediately their bodies felt relieved. Especially Vallow's of whose arms started to spin around uncontrollably.

"Man my body feels so light." Xander commented, as Kendra nodded her agreement.

"Why don't you try, mmmmm jumping as high as you can." Zabuto suggested. Giving each other a look, they all squatted down and jumped up into the air. But instead of a simple jump like they had planned, they jumped almost eighty feet in the air. Giving each other a satisfied look they smiled broadly as they started to run almost as fast as Master Roshi did when he ran the hundred meter dash weeks before. "Now do you see, children." he spoke up making the group stop in their tracks and line up. "For months Master Roshi has been pushing your bodies to the limit and has trained you even when you didn't know that you were being trained."

"Tomorrow, Papaya Island is hosting it's annual world martial arts tournament." Roshi started getting everyone's attention. "They will have fighters from all over the world fighting there, so in order to see how my training has come along, I want you three to enter into the tournament."

"But...."

_Believe in yourself for once in your life kid._ Roshi spoke to Xander using telepathy. During the course of him training them he had looked from time to time into his students minds and saw things he wished he hadn't. For Xander he saw a glimpse of his fathers abuse, how his self esteem dwindled through the years, and even when he had tried to help his friends. In Kendra he saw an early childhood memory of when she was taken from her family and how she was taught to stay away from other people and not allowed to have a normal life. And atleast the Fairy had fun in her life, even if she was almost as old as he was. Still he saw how she had to watch as her kingdom fell in battle to an evil monster. _Just believe in yourself kid. Believe as I do._

"Yes, Master." Xander replied, casting away some doubt as he gave his teacher a bow.

"Xander what are you doing?" Vallow asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Master Roshi hasn't said anything."

"She's right." Roshi replied, placing a wrinkled hand on the top of his bald head. "Now you crazy kids go on and spar or something. I'm going to make reservations for a plane and a hotel." he said before he walked off. Giving him a look, Zabuto followed him.

"Hey guys, let's go to the back of the house and get some training in." Xander suggested.

"Maybe, later." Vallow said with a yawn, as she took off her ring and returned to fairy size. "Since the Master isn't training us today, I'm going to go back and get some sleep."

"I wonder what's de matter with her?" Kendra asked as she and Xander lined up to spar.

"Well, Master Roshi has been training her harder then us." Xander replied as he threw a punch, which Kendra easily dodged. "Maybe she's still tired from all of that."

"I tink you may be right." Kendra agreed as she kicked Xander square in the chest, knocking him to the ground. "Xander are you okay?" she asked, as she ran to his down form.

"Yeah." he replied, a little winded as she helped him to his feet. "Just... we're alot stronger then we were a few months ago. I think that we shouldn't use our full strength."

Nodding her agreement and apologizing again, the duo got back into defensive poses. With a warrior cry Xander immediately tried to knock the girl back with a jumping kick but she dropped into a split to duck under the attack and just as quickly sprang back up to her feet. Trying another tactic he then tried to kick her feet out from under her, only for her to back flip over it. She ducked under another kick from him before knocking him down to the dirty ground with a kick of her own.

"If you wanna beat me, Xander I tink dat you need to stay on your feet." Kendra unchararteristically mocked.

"You little minx." her opponent said with a smile. "You finally learned how to get your banter on. Not bad... I'll give you an A for effort."

Blushing some they lined up once again and she came out with a big roundhouse kick aimed at his head. Seeing it coming Xander ducked underneath it, but was amazed when she kept coming at him with a flurry of punches. Catching an arm, he lifted a leg before taking her down with a kick to the back of her legs. Flipping back to her feet she launched at him with a series of rainbow kicks that made him jump back. Seeing that she was about to do another kick, he did one of his own forcing her to go on the offensive. Taking this as an advantage he caught her in the midsection with a side kick, knocking her back to the ground.

"That's enough you two." Zabuto announced as he walked to the back of the house. "It's time."

Papaya Island

Semi-final matches

The preliminary and quarter final match's went by in a blur for Kendra, Xander, and Vallow, as they made it to the quarter finals. It was strange to all of them to make it so far, because the people they faced seemed like giants and had mountains of muscles. They could only say that it was because of Master Roshi's special training. Standing side by side with Kendra behind a wall by the ring the two watched as Vallow climbed into said ring.

"Alright Val you can do it!" Xander yelled out over the crowd as he clapped his hands.

"You shouldn't jump to rash conclusion's, Xander." Kendra spoke up, beside him. "Her adversary has made it dis far aswell so dey must be good."

"They may be good, but they're not my friend." Xander replied, turning to frown at her. "Now how about showing some support for her? She's gonna win this." he said turning back to face his red headed friend.

"Before the next bout begins, I wanted to hold an interview." the announcer of the fight said as he got into the ring himself. "Hey you two, come over here." he said to Xander and Kendra, who walked over to him quickly. "Firstly I wanted to congratulate you three on making it this far in the tournament. You three are probably the youngest in the tournament now." he said as the crowd cheered. "Now what are your names and how old are you kids?"

"My name is Xander and I'm fifteen." he grinned as the mic was then passed down to Kendra, of whom was looking into the crowd. Following her gaze he saw that she was looking at Mr. Zabuto who nodded at her._ It's not like it's going to matter about her being a potential Slayer here. _Xander thought to himself. _So there's no need for secrecy._

"My name is Kendra, sir and I am sixteen." she said as she handed the mic to Vallow.

"Is this for me?" Vallow asked, eyeing the microphone.

"Just talk into it, Val." Xander whispered.

"Well, um my name is Vallow and I'm... in human years three hundred and fifteen."

"Three hundred and...." the announcer started in shock until he started to laugh. "Why you're such a jokester."

"I'd hate to see the candles on her birthday cake." Xander whispered to himself.

"I've also noticed that you three have matching orange gi uniforms." he went on. "So does that mean that you're representing the same house?"

"Yes, our master is Master Roshi." Xander spoke up.

The announcer was surprised and repeated the name Master Roshi and the gang saw that the crowd too was impressed. The crowd repeated the name and someone said he understood why the kids fought so amazingly.

"They were taught by the great Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi... isn't that amazing?" he asked as the crowd cheered. "Now let's get this tournament under wa...."

"Hey! Aren't you going to interview me?" a voice asked. Looking up the gang saw a short old man, with a grey thick goatee and mustache, wearing a black and white martial artists uniform. They were about to comment on how much he looked like their master until they saw the thick layer of hair on the top of his head.

Walking forward the old man jerked the mic out of the announcer's hand. "Hey everybody, I'm Jackie Chun!" he yelled to the crowd as he started to snap his finger. "One, two, three, four!!! Bon bon bon bon bon bon bon bon..."

"What is he doing?" Kendra asked as she and her companion stepped back behind the wall.

"He's singing." Xander replied with a groan. Letting out a sigh he lowered his head as Vallow joined him in singing and dancing.

As they finished their little routine Jackie shook Vallow's hand, before handing the announcer back his mic. The announcer, as well as the crowd was speechless at the display, but getting business like the announcer called for the fight to begin. Jackie Chun and Vallow stood still, Vallow's arms were at her sides and Jackie's arms were crossed behind his back, as they both stared at each other. Not being able to take the wait Vallow screamed and dashed into Jackie.

"How many times have I told that girl never to rush into an attack." Jackie mumbled to himself as she threw her tiny fist forward for a fast punch. Seeing it coming Jackie blackflipped out of the way and landed on his feet. Rushing towards him Vallow let loose a series of punches, which Jackie had to actually try to avoid. Seeing her charging up a powerful punch, he caught her right hand in his palm and as they broke away from each other, Jackie took on an attack stance. With super speed Jackie charged at Vallow, and gave her a backhanded tap to her forehead. That seemingly weak attack however sent her flying into the back wall of the ring. Getting up, she was shocked; she never even saw the punch coming.

"Val, get up!" she heard Xander screaming, as her senses came back to her. Looking up, she saw him smiling down at her. "V why didn't you dodge? That punch was a slow one."

"What?" V asked in disbelief. "I...I...."

"V, look we all had the same training." he reminded her. "Kendra saw the attack coming." he said as she nodded at his side. "Just remember what Master Roshi taught you and you won't have a problem."

"I won't be so nice with my next punch," remarked Jackie as Vallow got to her feet and resumed her fighting pose. Again Jackie, struck at his pupil, only this time V saw the punch coming and dodged out of the way.

Flipping to the other side of the ring, Vallow suddenly remembered something. Turning around, her back facing Jackie, she bent over and tapped at the weights on her legs knocking them off, giving her the extra speed that she needed. She knew that she forgot something. Seeing her shapely round butt, made Jackie drool deeply. Being the pervert that he was, Jackie couldn't resist his urges, and he leapt towards the round booty. Feeling something coming up behind her Vallow looked up and was surprised at the oppurtunity that was presented to her. Just inches away from his goal, Jackie received a sharp kick to the head from Vallow, the force of which knocked him clear out of the arena, and into the sky above the surrounding city.

"Damn, I never thought that she would do something like that." Jackie said aloud as he stroked his chin. "But the peek I got at the booty was worth it." he laughed as he looked around. "I guess there's only one way out of this." cupping his hands together, the old man fired a Kamehameha wave at the city street, and used its force to propel himself back into the Budoukai arena. And with a roll in mid-air, as the wave dissapated, he landed safely on his feet. "Thank you very much." he said with a bow.

Stunned, the announcer exclaimed that, up until that point, there was only one man who had mastered the Kamehameha, but now there was another. Totally amazed, Vallow turned to Xander and asked what she could do.

"Win!" it was Kendra to yell out. Giving her a look and a smile Xander gave her a thumbs up. Letting that build her up, Vallow charged Jackie, who easily dodged out of the way causing her to smash into the back wall of the arena.

"Didn't your master teach you to look before you leap." jested Jackie as she returned to her feet.

"Shut up!" V shouted back as she charged the old man once again. Instead of jumping, Jackie closed his eyes and used his "After-Image technique", leaving an image of himself even as his real form appeared behind her.

"V, look out! Behind you!" Xander shouted, but it was too late. Before she could turn Jackie unleashed a fierce chop to each side of her neck, dropping the Fairy to the ground and making her revert back to her small form. Shocked at now seeing the butterfly sized warrior, the announcer began his count, even as Jackie walked away mumbling "Don't bother counting. She won't be getting up for a while."

After the match was officially over, Kendra and Xander ran out into the ring and looked at their fallen, and still unconscious friend. Scooping her up in his arms, Xander gently shook her, trying to rouse her. Eyes slowly fluttering open, Vallow looked up to see her friends smiling faces.

"Hey, Val you did great." Xander said lowly, as if he were talking to a child.

"Did... did I win?" she asked hopefully. Seeing their downcast looks, she knew the truth.

"No you didn't win, but you fought well." Chun said as he walked up and handed her the tiny ring that had flown off of her finger. "I'm sure your master would be very proud of you."

Xander was about to say something, until he looked out into the crowd and didn't see Roshi anywhere.

"Speaking of, Master Roshi, where is he?"

"You mean that he didn't see me fight?" Vallow asked, as she flew out of Xander's hands and looked around for herself.

"Maybe, he got lost." Kendra suggested. "He is an old man."

"What, old?!" Jackie shouted, catching himself. "I mean... um I saw him just a few minutes ago. I know he's around here somewhere."

"It's time for the sixth match of the World's Martial Arts tournament to begin, so everyone except for Xander and Kendra please clear the ring." the announcer said over his mic.

"Come on kid." Jackie said to Vallow. "I'll treat you to a soda." as the two started to leave the area, Kendra noticed that Vallow sat down on Jackie Chun's shoulder. It was an action that she only did to people she trusted. Strange.

"Hey, we're up." Xander whispered snapping her out of her thoughts. "Good luck."

"I don't believe in luck." Kendra replied with a smirk. "My skills will speak for dimself."

As someone hit the gong, to start the match the two teens circled around one another while switching into different fighting stances. Seeing an opening Xander smirked as he charged towards his opponent, executing a high kick that she easily ducked under. Seeing that he fell for the bait, Kendra rose up and delivered a kick of her own to his chest, and going with the motion spun around and slammed her other leg across the back of his head. Caught off guard, Xander nearly lost his bearings, but coming back to himself, he did a back flip to get some distance from her.

_Damn._ he thought loosely to himself. _She's better then I thought._

Not giving him time to rest Kendra leapt forward with a flying jump kick that he was barely able to block. Seeing that he was about to drop his guard with his metal arm his real weakness, Kendra determined, she went at him hard with a flurry of punches, knifehand chops, kicks, each blocked by Xander with some effort. Countering her moves, he knee'd her in the mid-section and sent out a kick, but to his dismay she caught his leg and sent out a hard punch to his chest that sent him down hard to the ground.

"If on your back is where luck gets you den keep it." Kendra mocked

With a growl Xander immediately flipped back up and the two teens charged at each other exchanging a fierce volley of punches and kicks. Ducking under a punch Xander finally gained the upper hand when she dropped her guard for the briefest of seconds. As she went for a finishing punch, he jumped up and let out a rainbow kick across the face, and while still in midair turned and brought his other leg around for a mule kick that slammed against her stomach. Gasping in shock and in pain she crashed to the ground and went into a roll.

"I must give you credit." Kendra said, wiping sweat off of her brow as she stood to her feet.

"You can call it my second wind." Xander said with a devilish smirk, that he quickly dropped. "And believe me it's blowing like a hurricane."

"I must admit someting." Kendra said with a smirk of her own. "I've been holding back someting from you and our master. I witnessed him do dis one morning but I modified it some."

"What... you... you learned the kamahameha wave?" Xander asked taking a step back. _She's even better then I thought if she can pull that off._

"No... but it is deadly." she admitted as she put her arms behind her and cupped her palms together, creating a black and purple ball in her hands. _Please Xander move out of de way, I don't want ta kill you?_

"Well, I have to admit something to you too." Xander said as he cupped his hands together and got into a similar pose, creating an all red ball of light . "I learned something myself." _Please move out of the way!_

"What are those two doing?" Vallow asked, shocked as she sensed some powerful energy in the air.

_Oh, no... I didn't teach them power moves yet!_ Jackie thought to himself. "No you two, don't do it!"

"Fang of the dragon...."

"Hell fire...."

"Ha...." both teens yelled as their beams collided in mid air, creating a huge energy ball between the fighters which flooded the arena in a blinding dark light. The ball expanded until it exploded, sending both competitors flying across the arena and out of the ring.

"That... that was phenominal." the announcer said as he got out of his shock and got into the ring. "In the history of this tournament this has never happened. It seems that both competitors are eliminated."

* * *

"What... what happened?" Xander asked as he came too, feeling a pair of hands holding the back of his head. Looking up he saw that it was Jackie Chun.

"It seems that you and your friend were equally matched." Chun commented as he looked over to see Zabuto helping Kendra to her feet. "The force of your power attacks knocked both of you out of the ring. The judges are deciding what to do with you now." standing to his feet, as an idea came to him, Xander quickly ran over to the arguing judges.

* * *

"So when did you have time to come up with dat power attack?" Kendra asked, as the judges called for an intermission, giving them time to walk the grounds.

"I snuck out for a few hours each night and practiced. You?"

"I woke up early each morning and did de same ting." Kendra said giving him a weak smile.

"If they go with my idea, then what do you think we should do with him?" Xander asked as they saw Jackie Chun sitting at a little booth drinking some tea. Whispering into his ear, Xander smiled at her idea.

"Will Kendra, Jackie Chun, and Xander please report back to the ring." the announcer said over the mic. Giving each other a look they walked back into the arena and got into the ring. "After careful deliberation we've decided to take Xander's idea and put it into action. This will be a first for our tournament but we've agreed for all three of you to fight at the same time. The last man .... or woman left standing in the ring is the champion."

As he said that the crowd exploded in cheer and watched as the three fighers got ready.

The crowd sat silent, and the drum beat on the sidelines commenced as the 7th and final match of the 19th Tenkaichi Budoukai was about to begin. The champion of this battle, be it Kendra, Xander, or Jackie Chun, would receive the 500,000 zenie prize. As the match was about to begin, Jackie, Xander, and Kendra took their stances.

"I won't hold back." quipped Jackie, as he gave his unsuspecting students a wink.

"We won't either." Kendra agreed as she gave Xander a nod. Breaking the circle Xander ran forward, ducked under a punch from Jackie, and clapped his hands together to tap into his resources of alchemy. Putting his hands down to the ground the stones under Jackie's feet began to shake, before finally exploding knocking him high into the air. Taking that as her cue as she and Xander had planned, Kendra jumped high into the air, delivering a powerful spin kick on Jackie.

Thinking that he was surely going to fall out of bounds, he suddenly smiled as he saw something. As Jackie approached the ground just outside of the arena, at the last possible second, he kicked his foot into the lip of the raised arena, saving him from going out of bounds. Jumping back into the air Jackie climbed back into the arena.

"Nice try." he said eyeing the both of them. "I must admit that I didn't see that one coming." _I had better stop underestimating these kids. Especially her._ he thought looking closer at Kendra.

"I've been watching you, Mr. Chun?" Kendra replied as all three of them circled each other.

"Oh really?" Jackie asked. "You see something you like?"

"As a matter of fact, I have." Kendra replied, making Jackie and Xander blush. Not getting the relivance Kendra went on. "I've been studying your techniques and I understand how to use dem." After a bit of thought, Kendra decided to use "After-Image," the same technique that Jackie used to defeat Vallow.

Disappearing, she reappeared behind him, readying an attack. As she did this, Jackie concentrated, and upon sensing her presence, he leapt into the air to avoid her. Countering, he came down with a jump-kick, which she dodged. With an upset sigh from Kendra, both fighters exchanged several rounds of punches and kicks, which each fighter blocked the other's blows. Finally, Jackie managed to land a blow on her, causing the young warrior to stumble. Regaining her footing, Kendra used a sweep kick to trip Jackie and as his body went slightly into the air, punched him so hard that he went towards the Budoukai arena's back wall. The wall coming up fast, Jackie turned in mid-air and propelled himself off of the wall using his feet and came charging back at her. Kendra, who was stunned at the old man's agility, stood helpless as he landed a sharp chop to her neck. The chop, being more than she could stand, caused her to curl up on the ground, in a fetal position.

About to knock her out of the ring, Jackie suddenly sensed something. Jumping up high into the air, he avoided Xander's Hell Fire wave and landed behind the boy.

"Whoa!" Xander yelped out as he stopped pumping energy into his wave, and jumped out of the way as Jackie swung at him. Jumping into the air, himself Xander struck down on Jackie with a series of kicks and punches, all of which Jackie dodged with little effort.

"Seem to be having a hard time, aren't you?" asked Jackie.

"Shut up old man!" Xander shouted, upset that he was making them look badly.

Jackie only smiled at that and resumed the match using his "After-Image" technique.

"That again? That move is getting older then you. Why are you keep using it!" shouted Xander as he turned and punched at a second image of Jackie. 'Man this guy is fast.'

Jackie then appeared behind him, saying "Because it works," before kicking him sharply into the arena's back wall, demolishing it. Seeing her friend go down, Kendra jumped up and tried to punch Jackie in the face. "You're really starting to annoy me, kid."

Again, Jackie resumed the match, but this time with a new technique. Hiccuping he began to stagger around the arena, as if he were drunk. This caught Kendra off guard and as she was about to ask him if he was alright, Jackie staggered towards her and punched her numerous times in the stomach and face. Despite her attempts, she couldn't counter his drunken master technique by normal means. Going into a roll after being kicked in the stomach again, she got a little distance from Jackie until she looked out into the crowd and saw her Watcher, staring at her intently. Sharing his gaze, she thought back to what he had told her years ago. Failure wasn't an option. Suddenly energized, she got to her feet and jumped into the air, kicking Jackie square in the head she managed to stop his drunken attack, and land a few hits as well. Eventually, the two broke apart and took a short breather.

_Damn she's a bit stiff on some of her moves and she's not imaginative, but her hits pack a wallop. I might've trained her to well._ Jackie thought to himself. "This match is officially over."

"What?" Kendra asked in shock. "You're... you're giving up?"

"No... but you're about too. I see now that I have to use my ultimate attack on you."

"Bring it." Kendra shouted out, keeping him talking long enough to gather some strength. The match had gone on so long, that by now dusk was rapidly approaching, and the Moon hung low in the sky.

Jackie clasped his hands together in praying fashion and began to power up. He put out his hands, and they were engulfed in electricity and as he continued to charge his ultimate attack for nearly a minute he finally released it on her. With a cry of agony, electricity flowed through Kendra's body as she was lifted into the air.

"Right now over twenty thousand volts of electricity is flowing through your body." Jackie informed her. "Just give up and your pain and suffering will be over."

"N....never!!!" Kendra shouted out in pain.

Finally emerging from the rubble Xander raised his head, just in time to see Kendra wincing in pain from Jackie Chun's attack. Managing to dig in the pocket of his shirt, he took out a silver coin with a transmutation circle on it. Clapping his hands together once he watched as a soft glow emmitted from his hands turning the coin into a small spear head. Throwing it at Jackie's feet, he watched as the electricity coming from his body was amplified causing a small explosion at his side, blowing him off of his feet.

Falling to her feet, body and clothes smoking Kendra staggered on her feet a little before dropping down to one knee.

"I guess I.... I mean your Master taught you well." Jackie said as he looked from Xander to Kendra, his hair standing up on end. "That's finish this."

Looking up at him Kendra slowly stood to her feet. At that point, the three fighters were nearly drained of their ki. They could mostly only rely on hand-to-hand combat. Knowing this the worn out contestants charged each other, and exchanged a series of equally fierce blows.

Finally seeing the opening he had been waiting for, after several minutes of fighting, Jackie put his hands together in a motion as if praying. Using the last of his ki he thrusted his left hand out shooting out a violent stream of wind that caught Xander and Kendra in the tail end of it. Not having anything to hold onto both of the teens were swept off of their feet and thrown out of the tournament ring.

"By a mind blowing turn of events, no pun intended, Jackie Chun is the newest World's Martial arts champion." the blond haired announcer said as he entered the ring.

"Was there ever any doubt?" Jackie asked as he put up a peace sign and started blowing kisses to the women in the crowd.

Groggily opening his eyes and nursing the lump on the top of his head, Xander opened his eyes and saw a hand being offered to him. Looking up, he saw that it was Jackie Chun smiling down at him. Taking the preoffered hand the seasoned martial artist helped both him and Kendra to their feet.

"Your master would be very proud of you."

"Yeah, but we didn't win." Xander replied with a wince.

"Martial arts isn't always about winning or losing my boy. It's about improving yourself. And today the both of you showed me that."

"Dat last attack." Kendra said looking down at the man. "I didn't see it coming."

"Dat's because you need more training." Mr. Zabuto said as he walked over to them. "Your performance at best was sloppy. As a potential Slayer you should've won that fight. Now come you must get your rest." giving a slight bow to Jackie, Kendra walked away with Mr. Zabuto.

"What a jerk. That girl was amazing." Chun said aloud. "Listen, I sense a great power in you son. Continue your path and I have faith that you will become even that much stronger."

Chow Chow Restuarant

Later That Night

Nursing a slap mark on the side of his face. Roshi sat sulking while the others laughed at Vallow having slapped him for trying to touch on her butt. Finishing his bowl of ramen Xander looked over at his master and gave him a troubling look. Sensing this, Roshi looked over at him and lifted up an eyebrow.

"What's up?"

"No offense but how can I save the world of Thalos when I can't even beat an old man?" as Xander said that Roshi let out a hardy, before clearing his throat.

"Listen son, stop putting so much pressure on yourself. You and Kendra are young. Give yourselves time maybe one day you'll reach Jackie Chun's level of power."

"Yeah, when?" Xander asked grumply.

"Ahehehehehe, I tell you what, tomorrow I'll take you to a place that'll be sure to increase your power."

"Really?" both Kendra and Xander seemed to ask at the same time.

"Yeah, just don't forget to bring some catnip." Roshi said as he started to laugh, hard leaving his students and Mr. Zabuto to wonder if he had just a little to much Saki to drink.

The Land of Korin

The Next Day

"Merciful Zeus." was all Xander could say as he looked up at what seemed to be a neverendingly tall tower. "How... how long did it take you to climb this?"

"Almost a day in a half." Roshi replied, stroking his beard and thinking back to more unpleasant times. "But don't worry, you kids are a little stronger then I was when I first climbed. It shouldn't take you three that long."

"A day?" Xander asked nervously s he looked at Kendra.

"Don't worry I can use my magic and...."

"Don't you dare!" Roshi all but screamed out. "This tower was built in honor of a great hero that sacrificed his life many years ago. It is to be climbed to show that you honor and respect that."

"I...I'm sorry Master." Vallow replied sadly.

Visibly calming down Roshi looked at his three students and let out a sigh. "All three of you have surpassed my expectations and as such, I'm going to give back what I took from you." as he was saying that he reached into the back compartment of his yellow private jet and handed them back their Masuoka uniforms.

Giving his partner a smile both of them changed into a uniform that consisted of a black short sleeve shirt, with a long white sleeveless overcoat over it and black pants. It also had two black chinese symbols on the back of the overcoat that meant strength and dragon. Watching them Vallow used her magic to make one for herself.

"Given this current situation I will not be able to accompany you." Zubuto said as he stepped forward. "I will stay with Master Roshi until you return. Alexander take care of my charge."

"Alright guys." Xander said looking over at his friends, before turning back to the tower. "Let's get this party started."

"Wait." Roshi said simply as he walked over to Xander carrying something large wrapped in a black tarp. Master Masuoka gave me this many years ago. I've never found any use for it, and I'd like you to have it."

Opening it he found that it was a serpentine-bladed sword approximately 50" (127 cm) in length with a skull faced pummel and a broad blade forged from unknown materials. As he wondered how he was going to carry it, what seemed to be the flesh of a dragons wing wrapped around the blade and created a form of shoulder harness for him.

"I see that it likes you." Roshi said with a smile. "You kids better get going. You have a long journey ahead of you."

Saying their goodbyes, the two teens and the fairy started their long journey up the tower.


	7. Chapter 7 Trial By Sesshomaru

Chapter 7

Trial By Sesshomaru

Xander screamed girlishly as he and his friends were falling down a tunnel filled with white light. It seemed that Master Roshi had neglected to tell them that Korin was a talking blind white cat. Trying hard to ignore that fact, especially Xander of whom made several jokes, they humbly asked for a drink of the power increasing sacred water. After he refused to give them any, Xander foolishly ran past him and opened up a door that led to another room. The rest following him they watched as he opened up the top on a giant blue pot.

As Korin yelled a warning a dark demonic hand reached through the water that was contained in the pot, grabbed Xander by the neck and pulled him into the water. Trying to help, Kendra and Vallow ran over and were similarly pulled into the awaiting pool. And as they were pulled down inside it led them to where they were now, down the dark and partially white light filled tunnel.

Hearing Kendra mumble, "oh no" Xander manged to look behind himself and saw that she was invisibly being pulled down another direction in the tunnel. As he reached his hand out to try to save her there was a light behind him and he and Vallow, of whom was holding tightly to his shirt, were expelled out of the tunnel and thrown violently to the ground. Body stinging with mind numbing pain, he pushed through it and stood quickly to his feet and looked around.

He was standing on a dirt road at night with nothing but a forest valley. His friend nowhere in sight.

"Kendra!" Xander called out nervously. He had given his word to protect her and.....

"Xander." Vallow said nervously from his shoulder. As the stinging sensation went away, his senses now fully aware, he scanned his surroundings again. Far off in the distance he saw faint signs of flames and smoke. On wobbly legs he started a slow jog, that turned into a sprint, that quickly turned into a full out run.

Screams and smoke greeted him as he and Vallow, of whom put on her power ring, ran into what seemed to be a small japanese licked at the night sky as smoke billowed and curled in the wind. Demons were scattered everywhere, jumping townspeople as they attempted to run for their lives. Blood spattered across the dirt and grass, huts were burnt or destroyed all together. Mangled, torn, bloodied bodies dotted the village area.

Turning he saw that about fifteen feet away stood three beings. He took notice of the tall youth's face and that it was tattooed with two red slash marks on both sides, and carried a crescent moon on his forehead. Odd marks could be overlooked, but he had a sight to him that couldn't be. His hair, was long and glossy white color that went to his ankles . If the wind blew at that moment Xander would sware that he was in some kind of model commercial but he knew that couldn't be because of the man's inhumanly pointed ears. He seemed to carry the air of a noble man , but as Xander was about to find out his body was meant to tempt fate itself. Even if he did only have one arm.

His armor included a spiked pauldron that covered his left shoulder attached to the upper section of his cuirass. Both his armor and his long flowing sash had a decided "Mainland" (Asian) influence, as opposed to the customary Japanese armor and sash. His Kimono was mostly white with a red honeycomb and flower crest at the collar, sleeves, and shoulder, most likely the crest of his family clan. He wore a type of traditional flowing Japanese "pants, which were gathered at the ankles producing a "ballooning" effect. His footwear consisted of flat pointed ankle-high boots (instead of sandals), also reminiscent of Mainland influence. And in his scabbard he carried two swords.

At his right was a small green toad like demon with brown clothes and a staff with what looked to have two carved heads on it. One side had the face of an old woman and the other an old man. And on the left of him was a pretty little Japanese girl of around eight, wearing a white/orange checkered pattern kosode. She was holding the reins for a two headed dragon riding horse like demon.

After a moment of staring he saw that the flames were coming from the toad demon's staff and he and the demon man were trying to destroy the other demons of the town. Already figuring that they were probably the only humanoids left alive, he decided that he too would join in on the action. Clapping his hands together, attempting to tap into his alchemaic powers he found that he had none.

"What the....." Xander said nervously as a fifteen foot tall preying mantis demon took a swipe at him.

* * *

Coming too, Kendra stood to her feet and found herself to be in a moss covered tunnel... no a well. Hearing voices she looked up and saw a pair of piercing golden eyes.

"Hey." the stranger called down to her in japanese. Thanking whomever was listening, that Mr. Zabuto had taught her Japanese, as well as a few other languages, Kendra spoke back to him.

"Hey." she said as she squatted down some and jumped several feet into the air. Jumping out of the well, she landed next to the startled stranger. Getting a better look at him she saw that he had long flowing white hair, golden eyes, and had on a red komono with what looked to be a katana on his side. But that wasn't the strangest thing, because he had claw like fingers and dog ears sticking out of the top of his head.

"What the hell?" the stranger asked gripping the pummel of his sword. "You're ain't Kagome." he said as he stopped to sniff her. "Who or what the hell are you?"

* * *

With speed even he didn't know he possessed, in one swift motion he took off his sword and blocked the demons clawed attack. On bended knee he waited until the thing was upon him before slashing it across the side sending traces of blood splattering across the night sky. As the demon howled in pain, Xander let out a horrible cry. A cry that seemed unrealistic coming from his throat.

Jumping onto the back of the demon Xander plunged his sword deep within it and watched as it howled once before disintegrating. Breathing heavily, Xander fell to the ground as black demonic power seemed to surge through him from where the demon had once been. With a roar he stood up fully his hand digging deep into the pummel of his sword, so much so that his hand began to bleed.

"Demon's!" he roared over the carnage and crackling of fire. "Ahahahahahaha it's time to meet my Soul Reaver." as he gave the name of the sword it started to glow with an unholy aura.

"Oh no." Vallow gasped as she looked back at her friend and saw that he was now acting like a feral animal; eyes red, lips curled up angrily, with yellow glistening fangs… "Ahhh!" she yelled as one of the demons sank it's claws into her unprotected back before another sent her flying into a tree.

* * *

The silver-haired youth cracked his knuckles as he stared at Kendra. "Tell me where Kagome is, bitch!"

Startled by his language Kendra was a little slow in answering, making the half demon angry and draw his sword which got almost impossibly big. Giving her another cold stare Inuyasha charged her, with his sword getting ready for an attack. He finally got to her and took a swipe for her pretty face. Seeing it coming Kendra quickly moved and waited for his next move. Inuyasha took a step back and started to pounce on her, but she grabbed his leg with both hands, and flipped him over making him fall on his back.

"Stupid wench." Inuyasha cried with a frustrated sigh as he got back up and tried to get ready to endure an attack or two. Deciding to go on the offensive she took a kick at him, but but missed by nearly an inch . In a mere second she jumped, spun around and kicked at Inuyasha again, but this time hitting his chest, forcing him to the ground. Flipping in mid-fall he got back up and dashed towards a group of trees Kendra in hot pursuit running to follow. Gathering energy in her right fist behind herself , she spun it around to attack, but with her left hand transferred it and punched the hanyou in the chest. The hit made him crash into the wall, and fall on his face into a small puddle.

'Who is she?' the dog demon asked himself as he stood to his feet and wiped away the water that now dripped from his face. "I've had about all I can stand of you." he said as a golden aura started to surround his Tessaiga. "Wind Scar!!!" he shouted as golden energy in the shape of claw marks shot out of the sword, ripping up the earth and coming up rapidly towards Kendra.

Knowing that she didn't have time to move Kendra was about to except her fate, until the twang of an arrow caught both of their attention, before hitting Inuyasha's wave and dispersing it with an explosion. Tracking where the arrow had come from the two saw a tall beautiful woman in black body armor with a large boomerang like weapon on her back sitting on a large cat like demon with red eyes, a man with a golden staff wearing black and purple robes, a small boy with a fox tail and feet of whom was sitting on the shoulders of a young girl in a white and green school uniform. But who caught Inuyasha's attention the most was the tall woman standing next to the girl. The woman who had seemingly shot the arrow, because her weapon was still outstretched.

"Kikyo?" he said in amazement.

"Inuyasha." the woman known as Kikyo said back. "Why are you attacking this human girl?"

"Feh, this wench is anything but human." Inuyasha replied, snapping out of his daze. "I can smell the stench of demon all over her."

"I am not a demon!" Kendra retorted angrily.

"She is right, Inuyasha." Kikyo said staring into Kendra's eyes as if she could see into the depths of her very soul. "She has the essence of something from an ancient power but she is no demon."

"Feh." was all the hanyou would say as he sheathed his sword.

"That's a good thing." the man wearing purple and black said as he somehow appeared next to Kendra and started rubbing her butt, making the girl in question blush. "Such beauty shouldn't be wasted on a demon."

"Miroku!" the woman with the boomerang yelled as she slapped him hard on the face.

"Don't mind him." the little fox demon said as he jumped on Kendra's shoulder making her tense up. Even though Xander had taught her that not all demons were bad it still bothered her a little. "That's his way of being nice. I'm Shippo, the guy that touched you is the monk Miroku, she's Sango, the demon cat Kilala, Kikyo, Kagome, and the guy that probably was probably dumb enough to try to kill you before asking you your name is the half demon Inuyasha."

"What was that, Shippo?" Inuyasha asked angrily from his position beside them.

"Nothing." Shippo said fearfully as he jumped from Kendra's shoulder to Kagome's.

"What's your name?" Kagome asked letting the little fox demon stuggle on her neck.

"I am Kendra." she said proudly.

"You're not from around here." Kagome stated more than asked. "Your accent sounds like you came from Jamaica or something?"

"So dis is earth?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Kagome asked as Kendra began to explain a little about her, Xander, and Vallow's journey all the way up to her being in the well.

"Don't worry we'll help you find your friends."

"Fascinating." Kikyo said as she began to pace around before looking back at the Jamaican born girl. "But tell me how did you come into the position of that uniform? It looks to be from the house of Master Masuoka."

"You know her, Master?" Kagome asked.

"Only by reputation, but he disappeared from this world many years ago."

"He wasn't my, Master." Kendra interruped. "My Master is named Roshi."

"I've heard of this Master Masuoka aswell." Miroku said, putting his hand to his chin in thought. "But all I can remember is many years ago that he vanquished many demons."

"Save the trip down memory lane for later." Inuyasha said as he turned around and looked off into the distance. Seeing a gathering of dark clouds in the night sky and thunder off a few miles away he suddenly snarled. "I'm picking up a large demonic aura coming from over there."

"Is it Naraku?" Sango asked.

"No." Kikyo answered for Inuyasha. "It's something almost as terrible."

"We need to investigate this then." Sango said getting on top of her warrior cat Kilala. "Lady Kendra come with us." not having much choice in the matter Kendra followed. Kikyo going somewhere else where she was needed.

* * *

Blood dripping from his Soul Reaver, Xander's red eyes surveyed the battle scene and he smiled a sickening smile at the blood, guts, and hundreds of crippled demon bodies that layed before him. Finally restng his eyes on Sesshomaru he frowned.

"Hey demon." he said pointing the bloody tip of his blade at the lord of the western lands. "Come."

"How dare you talk to the great Lord Sesshomaru in that manner." the little imp demon croaked out.

"Jaken." Sesshomaru said taking out one of his swords, Tokijin. "Shut up."

"Y...yes my lord."

"Come on pooch." Xander said as he started to whistle. "Come on boy. It's time to go out for your walk."

Sesshoumaru twitched at that and started towards Xander at a quick pace. With a dark smile Xander lifted his blade waiting for the moment Sesshoumaru would be at the right distance for him to impale it into his nemesis' stomach. Waiting until Sesshoumaru was only a few feet away Xander tried it and lunged forward with his blade sticking out hoping to stab through the demon's flesh. Seeing it coming Sesshoumaru easily dodged the attack by slightly moving to the left. While in the momentum and now facing him sideways, Sesshoumaru brought his right arm back and thrust it forward sticking his poisonious claws into the side of his ribs, making Xander scream out in pain. Catching him off guard Xander used that moment to swing his sword around at Sesshoumaru, pushing through the pain . Missing the hit Sesshoumaru still quickly leaped backward to get a little distance from him. In just the few seconds he used to close his eyes, Sesshomaru was gone.

Xander closed his eyes for a moment, to try to pick up where the demon was. Opening them sharply he tilted his head up too late as he suddenly felt a huge pain striking him right between the eyes. Focusing he figured that the demon must have leaped from somewhere and stabbed him right in his forehead. Sesshoumaru held his sword in his head for a moment before slowly pulling it out of it's fatal position. On wobbly legs Xander slowly dropped on the ground and keeled over

A/N If these chapters seem a bit rushed it's because... well they are. Real life is getting in the way of my writing and instead of keeping this on the shelf I decided to finish this. It's the least I owe to my fans and all of the people who have supported me. Thank you.


	8. Chapter 8 War Bound

A/N This was a motherload chapter for me and I had to enlist the help of some other authors to help me. So thanks to them for helping me finish this chapter. I have one more chapter planned after this.

Chapter 8

War Bound

Thalos

On Top of the Temen-ni-gru

Dropping his shield with wobbly legs Koragg fell heavily too his knees panting under his helmet. Looking up at an unholy altar with blood and huge snakes a red aura suddenly appeared. Holding up his hand to cover his face from the blinding light his master suddenly started to speak to him.

"The day has arrived, Koragg." Dai- Satan began in a dark raspy voice. "The day of which those that live below will serve me."

"Yes, my Master." the dark warrior replied, somehow bowing further then he already was. "But the boy...."

"I can sense that he will become even more powerful then you."

"But, before he left he was no match for me. How...."

"He has come into the possession of an ancient weapon called the Soul Reaver. And if properly used he could destroy all that we've worked for."

"I will not let that happen!" Koragg shouted as he stood to his feet.

"And I will see that you will." Dai-Satan declared as his laughter filled the room. "It is time that you return to your true Thalonian form and then merge with me so we will become one being." before Koragg could say a word the dark aura surrounded him. With a scream that filled the massive castle with a thunderous echo, that soon turned into laughter, a massive wind billowed from what was now called Mongral that blew threw the building and knocked the main doors off of castle.

As the wind died down a green beetle headed humanoid monster and a bear like demon approached him.

"Berlin, Beelore." Mongral said looking at his two generals. "Come the battle begins."

Surface World

Sametime

"It is about to begin." Nail whispered, his heart in his throat from nervousness as he looked up at the dark sky. Sensing fear, even though hundreds of his Thalonian warriors were around, he looked behind himself and saw his little sister Skyy with a tear in her eye. "He is alright my sister. Xander will come." meeting his gaze she smiled at her older brother.

"Do you really think we can win this?"

Before he could answer a loud sound roared through the early morning air. With glittering, almost heavenly lights a black door appeared a few hundred yards before them. From behind the huge gates, the terrifying chanting and the clanging of the armor of thousands filled the air.

With the sound of tortured metal, the massive gates began to open as Skyy and Nail looked on in trepidation.

The black gates of the Temen-ni-gru swung open and Dai-Satan's demon army of 150,000 marched out. With a collective gasp Nail and Skyy's army could only watch on in horror as the demons of all shapes and sizes marched towards them. Looking at his men, Nail saw the sheer look of fear in their eyes and that some were starting to waver as the demons began to encircle them. Some going as far as backing away ... losing their nerve.

Mounting his all black horse and galloped in front of his army, seemingly transfixing each and everyone of his men with his eyes.

"Hold your ground - hold your ground!" he shouted over the clammering of the soldiers behind him. "Sons and daughters of Thalos. My brothers! My sisters! I know that the situation looks grim, but we will not go silently into the night. We...."

"You're right." a familiar voice shouted from behind him, interrupting his speech. "You won't go silently. You'll go screaming."

"Nail...." Skyy whispered in fear.

Turning on his horse, Nail's eyes widened as he saw a face from his past standing a few yards away from him.

"Uncle Alphonse....?" he muttered in fear and awe.

"Attack." Mongral/Alphonse Elric said simply with a snap of his fingers as his demon army ran forward.

Earth

Ancient Japan

"That was... that was like a work of art my lord." Jaken said as he and Rin walked over too him.

"Is he... is he dead?" Rin asked staring into Xander's dead brown eyes.

"Is he dead?" Jaken mocked. "Look at him you fool. What do you think?"

Bending down Sesshomaru began to examine Xander's lifeless body. He could tell that the boy was human but he was perplexed as too how he had fought and acted like a demon. Glancing past him and the few alchemy symbols that he could recognize, he looked down at the boys sword and immediately recieved his answer.

"Jaken." the demon lord said satisfied with his inspection. "What do you make of this?"

As the little imp demon finished his spat with Rin, he had walked over and did the same as his lord and examined the youths body, until his eyes too drifted to the sword.

"This... this cannot be." the toad demon said as he fell to the ground in fear.

"What is it, Master Jaken?" Rin asked as she became fixated on the sword. "Pretty."

"Rin don't!" Sesshomaru shouted. Too late. As Rin touched the sword she let out a scream so raw that it seemed to tear through the night sky itself. Growing taller and her clothes changing, she stared into the eyes of her demon lord and almost like magic she changed into an almost female version of him, with the only exceptions being that she still had black hair and looked almost like Kagome in the face.

With a smile to the demon she started to emmitt a reddish pink vapor that swirled around her. The features and markings on her face began to elongate and become fierce in detail like that of a dog's. The whites of her eyes became red and the pupils and irises purple until she transformed into a giant white demonic dog. The sword dematerializing into her body. Eyeing them she immediately started to ascend into the sky.

Still trying to look impassive for a moment one could still see a look of concern in Sesshomaru's eyes, seconds before he also switched into his true demon dog form and followed her.

* * *

Waking up from where she was knocked too, Vallow sat up and immediately knew something was wrong. Clearing her head she jumped out of the tree she was in and looked around for Xander. Seeing only Jaken she looked past him and saw something.... no someone crumpled on the ground.

"Xander?" she said weakly, eyes widening as she saw that he was gored and dead. Pushing the little imp demon out of the way she cradled Xander in her arms and cried out.

* * *

Hearing a familiar cry Kendra quickened her pace ahead of the others. As she entered through the entrance of a small vilage, she stopped and gasped as she saw two different things. One was seeing two white demon dogs battling in the sky and the second was Vallow holding onto what seemed to be a very dead Xander.

"Sesshomaru." Inuyasha growled as he put Kagome down and stared into the night sky. Sniffing around his eyes widened as he stared at the other demon fighting his brother. "Impossible."

"What is it, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked.

"Th... that other demon Sesshomaru is fighting. There's a huge demonic aura coming from her but it's that kid that hangs around him all of the time."

"Oh no, Rin."

Not really caring what the two of them were talking about Kendra ran off to join her friends. As she got halfway there she heard a fierce roar and looked up into the sky. Circling each other both great demon dogs started to bite each other on the necks, sending them spiraling towards the ground. As they hit it, upon impact it created an explosion sending up a huge dust cloud and making everyone cover their faces, Vallow throwing her body on top of Xander to keep the debris off of him. As the dust started to settle, after a few moments they saw Sesshomaru and the sword possessed Rin in their human forms, both bleeding perfusely from their necks and staring hard at each other in a terrible silence. To the human eye, they both seemed to be standing perfectly still not doing anything but Inyasha saw more then that. He saw something he had never seen in his brother's eyes before. He saw compassion.

"Sesshomaru move out of the way!" Inuyasha yelled out as he took out his Tessaiga. "I'll deal with her."

Before any of them could even blink, Sesshomaru simply appeared in front of his half brother, punching him hard in the face and knocking him to the ground.

"Inuyasha!" his friends yelled at the same time.

Before the younger half demon could even roll fully onto his back Sesshomaru had managed to pin Inuyasha to the ground with his foot, his sword in positioned dangerously close to his throat.

"Touch her and you and all of your friends will die." Sesshomaru said with a sneer. Calming himself in the battle he lowered his sword from his neck. "You're not worth my time, you mutt." he said before taking his foot off of his chest and letting him stand to his feet. Ignoring Inuyasha's snappy comeback he watched as his other sword started to pulse like a heartbeat.

"Tenseiga." the white haired demon whispered as he looked down at it perplexed. Directing his attention towards Rin who stood watching, he quickly jogged over to where Xander's prone body lay.

"Haven't you done enough damage?" Vallow asked weakly, with tears in her eyes as she and Kendra looked up at him. Ignoring them he unsheathed Tenseiga and watched as the demons of the underworld started to knaw and pull at the fallen king. With one swipe of his sword Sesshomaru killed the demons and watched as the wound in Xander's head began to close.

"X... Xander?" Vallow asked watching as his hand started to twitch and as his eyes started to blink rapidly. Finally opening at a normal pace, Xander looked over at his friends in confusion.

"Val?" he asked hoarsely as she and Kendra helped him stand to his feet.

"I taught dat you were dead." Kendra said, the first of her tears starting to trickle down her face.

"I was." the King of Thalos said as he wiped away said tear. Looking over at his murderer slash savoiur, he saw that he was looking over at demon Rin. "Don't worry, Sesshomaru."he said speaking perfect Japanese. "I'll save her from...."

Before he could complete his sentence the girl seemed to simply appear in front of them. Without a word she back handed Xander sending him flying. As he was in mid-air he flipped and landed firmly on his feet.

"Damn." the king of Thalos said, holding his jaw. Not having time to fully get his bearings the girl suddenly appeared before him again. Recoiling some, amazed that he had seen the attack coming this time he got into a loose fighting stance, wiping the little dribble of blood coming from his mouth. Not giving the dog demon time to attack he ran forward, only to have her sidestep his attack. Not seeing it coming the demon swiftly knee'd him in the stomach, then punched him repeatedly in the the final blow Xander was sent spinning to the ground.

Before he could move Xander felt a cold hand around his throat. Choking, Xander doubled up his legs and kicked hard, once, twice, three times into the dog demon's stomach, trying to drive her back or loosen his grip. The demon never wavered, even as she picked the youth up off of his feet.

The blood being drained from his brain, Xander's eyes began to loose focus. That was until he opened his eyes and started to smile. Placing his hand firmly on Rin's wrist he sent an electrical surge throughout her body, making her scream out in pain. Not being able to take the power Rin dropped him and the deadly Soul Reaver she was holding onto so tightly. Reverting back to her original form, in a blink of an eye before Xander could catch her, Sesshomaru was there cradling the unconscious girl in his arm.

"That sword." Miroku said as he looked at it perplexed as it stood sticking up into the ground pulsing a deep dark purple aura. "I've never felt such demonic energy before."

"And you probably never will again." Xander replied as he sat down in front of the sword, cross legged.

"You talk like you've heard of dis sword before?" Kendra asked as she sat down beside him.

"I have." he went on as Vallow sat on the other side of him, looking at Sesshomaru with disgust. "This thing is called the Soul Reaver and it's from a demension controlled by vampires."

"Feh, it don't matter what or where this thing came from, we should destroy it." Inuyasha said as he took out his Tessaiga.

"No!" Xander all but screamed. His eyes widening.

"Why not?" Kendra questioned. "You've seen what dis ting did to dat little girl. It can't be used."

"Yes it can." he said as he looked at both of them. "When that sword activated for... for the first time in my life I could understand things that were beyond me. Languages, fighting, .... power. I understand it now guys. This things original purpose is to serve a vampire named Kain, but it talks to me now. It was testing me... testing us."

"Xander what are you saying?" Vallow asked confused.

"I'm saying, Val is that we need that thing to win our war with Koragg and to get home."

"How the hell can you do any of that when you can't even touch the sword without turning evil you idiot?" Inuyasha asked, annoyed.

"Inuyasha you fool." Sesshomaru said to his half brother. "Even this Sesshomaru knows that this human has changed."

"Guys, listen one person can't keep this thing and try to use it or it'll corrupt their soul with evil." Xander went on as he let out a sigh. "But if we break it and use the pieces from it, it'll distribute the power."

"I... I don't understand." Kendra replied confused.

"What, I'm saying is I can use my power to change that weapon so that it can be used for good. But if I do we'll be bound together forever.... just think about it before..."

"I'll do it." she blurted out.

"But...."

"You heard her!" Vallow all but screamed her agreement. "We believe in you."

With tears forming in his eyes at not only hearing for the first time in his life that someone believed in him, but looking into his friends eyes he could tell that they were telling the truth. Standing to his feet, he ordered them to do the same and stand in a loose circle around the sword.

"We'll never be the same again." as he said that, with a wave of his right mechanical arm a red alchemaic circle appeared under the sword. With a loud grunt of him accessing all of his power his nose began to bleed as the sword started to lift up into the air. With another grunt the blade detached itself from the pummel and started to bend and fold until it transformed into a crown of silver laced with gold. Before anyone could say a word it appeared on top of Xander's head. Along with three golden rings, two on his mechanical fingers and the other one on his marriage finger on his left hand.

Staring at Xander's rings of Thalos, Kendra was suddenly frozen in place as a black cord wrapped itself around her forehead and a small golden bell appeared in the middle of it that turned into a small gold crown. Vallow then too was seized in the hold of the swords power and silver guanlets appeared around her wrists and in a pained gasp her wings expanded out of her back making her look very much like a beautiful Angel.

The last bit of the sword gone, the power that was holding them faded making them all go down to one knee, as if they were bowing to one another. Seeing that Xander looked to be keeling over Kagome ran to catch him, only for Xander to grab her instead.

"Kagome." he whispered softly into her hair as she helped him stand to his feet.

"How the hell do you know her name?" Inuyasha asked angrily out of jealousy.

Ignoring him, Xander looked deeply into the slightly younger girls eyes. Understanding what he was saying to him telepathically, she nodded her head and ran to the others.

"Hey, Pooch you gotta special girl there. Take care of her." He said towards Inuyasha.

"I know what the hell Kagome is and she ain't special." Inuyasha replied, before thinking of what he had said. Looking over at Kagome he saw that her eye was twitching.

"Inuyasha!" she shouted. "Sit boy!" as she yelled that command the black necklace of subjugation around his neck started to glow and dragged him down into the ground creating a small crater.

"That stupid Inuyasha when will he ever learn?" Shippo asked from Kagome's shoulder.

"Just wait until I get out of this hole squirt." Inuyasha told him, twitching from the ground.

Resisting the urge to snicker, Xander got serious and turned his attention to Sesshomaru.

"One of these days I'm going to try to come back here.... so we can finish our little spat."

"This Sesshomaru will look forward to it, human." was all the demon said as he, Rin, and the imp Jaken turned and walked away.

"Come on guys it's time to go." Xander said to Kendra and Vallow as they said goodbye to Inuyasha and their group.

"You've found a way to get us back?" the Jamaican beauty asked.

"Yeah." Xander replied as he placed his index and middle fingers on his forehead to help him concentrate. "It's called Dragon Warp." as he said that a harmless ring of fire engulfed them and the very fabric of time and space began to fold and flex until the trio disappeared.

"Wait a minute." Inuyasha said after a few moments of silence. "Did that guy call me Pooch?"

Thalos

Sametime

Nail's regiment warriors slashed ruthlessly with short swords -- slicing a path of sheer destruction through the demons -- but the demons fought with equal brutality -- and they also fought with the desperation of a hopeless last chance to acquire Thalos for their master. With a low growl they pulled and speared soldiers off horses whenever they could. Some even going as far as too eat or disembowel them.

Seeing this seemed to fuel Nail as he spun his horse and swung his sword with expert efficiency. Out of nowhere a spear stabbed through the neck of his horse and it immediately collapsed forward sending him sailing over the horse's head and crashing to the muddy ground. Not giving the enemy an inch he immediately jumped up with a start and was in the midst of the battle.

On the ground, he proved his absolute worth as a warrior, as he hacked and dodged, his eyes burning with a zealous fire as he fought for his life. As a huge Rhino like demon attempted to run up behind him and gore him through the back, Skyy super charged a spear, threw it, and got it right between the eyes sending it to the ground dead. Nodding his thanks he turned and saw his uncle holding one man by the head dangling lifelessly from his hand.

As he was about to try to run and help a blur of black suddenly appeared before his demonically driven uncle. A blur that quickly became apparent that it was.... "Xander?"

* * *

Materializing high above the planet of Thalos Xander, Kendra, and Vallow hovered in space and surveyed the battlefield before them. Sensing a dark prescense he looked beyond the battlefield, already knowing what he would find. Looking to his newest members of his royal court, wordlessly they followed his command and went to join in the battle.

Flying at top speed Xander found Mongral terrorizing the people of his kingdom. Being able to read auras now and see past illusions he knew that the man before him was once Koragg the knight wolf. Seeing that he now had one man by the head dangling lifelessly from his hand, he silently landed behind him and cleared his throat.

"Well if it isn't my favorite face to shake hands with." Xander said making Alphonse drop the man and turn around. As he did Xander turned around, pumped some energy into the rings of Thalos and slapped the man hard in the face sending him skidding to the ground.

* * *

Berlin the bear general had moved beyond the battlefield as his master instructed and now stood in Skyy's village. Smiling as the villagers ran in fear, he let out a growl as he saw his intended target. Seeing that the little girl Constance was looking at him with terror filled eyes, he began to step forward. Her mind not allowing her to think she started shaking and crying. Closing her eyes she prayed for Xander to save her, all the while the villagers screamed their heads off. Just as soon as she closed her eyes she suddenly heard a loud crash causing the little girl to open her eyes. When she opened her eyes the tears stopped because now instead of the monster standing in front of her it was Kendra.

"Sorry for disappointing you for not being Xander, Princess Constance." Kendra formally called her by her title. "Me name is Kendra and I will be saving you today."

"Stupid wench." Berlin growled out deeply. "You will not...."

Not giving him time to say the rest Kendra charged him and threw a wildly aimed punch at his head. Seeing it coming, he moved his head to the side while her fist returned to her.

Berlin tried to punch Kendra in the gut, but she grabbed his arm, in a strong grip, stopping him. As she put her other hand on hiss other wrist, she picked him up and swung him above her head. Once Berlin got past her head, with amazing grace and agility for his size, Berlin flipped down on his clawed hands and feet . "What were you saying, monster?" asked Kendra with a smile.

With a growl Berlin tried to get back up but fell down again, his head facing her. Laughter in her eyes, she smiled before she felt something grabbing onto her legs. Looking down she saw that the demon had a firm grip around her ankles, right before he jumped up forcing her to fall on her pretty little head. "I was saying that you'll make a hardy meal." answered Berlin. Taking a few steps back he got in a fighting stance.

Eyes blazing, Kendra quickly got back and again stared at the demon, upset with herself that she fell for that. Then what Xander had said earlier clicked in her mind. Before they went through with the bonding he had told her that they would be bond together and now she figured that a part of each of them was now spread amongst them. Shaking off what she assumed was Xander's playful side and got all business like as she charged at the monster. Once she got close enough she jumped up and tried kicking the beast. Seeing it coming Berlin made an X with his arms to try minimizing the damage done to him.

In the millisecond it took for him to blink, Kendra was gone. Dropping his arms to the side, he looked around for her not seeing her anywhere. Reaching out with his senses, he looked to the pink and blood red sky only for Kendra's foot to perfectly connect with his face, snapping his head back and breaking his neck. As he layed on the ground dead, Kendra landed on the ground next to him in a crouch. Standing to her feet, she looked over at Constance and smiled, before placing her index and middle fingers on her forehead. Closing her eyes she vanished into thin air.

* * *

In a flare of energy Vallow took off straight at Beelore, fists seeming to become twin streaks of fury as she hammered in punch after punch at the beetle demon. With a twisted smile the demon took all the blows in stride, then brought his fists down hard atop her shoulders as she fell to her knees, her face contorted in pain. Flying high into the air, she charged some power into her hands and came down punching him hard into the chest forcing him to his knees with the impact of the blast. Not giving him a chance to recover she began to snap punches at it's face, with strikes too fast for the human or Thalonian eye to follow. Seeing that she had the demon on the ropes she finished by putting her hands together and bringing them down hard against his back, sending it flat on the ground.

Her breath coming in slowly, Vallow was about to walk away until Beelore stood up laughing. Turning, Vallow caught a punch to the chin that sent her whirling. Getting her bearings, before she hit the ground, she went into a series of flips before landing firmly on her feet.

Staring darkly Vallow flattened both palms together, gathered some energy and sent out burst after burst of energy that hit the bug demon square in the chest, sending up shrouds of dust and smoke around it. With a final shout, for good measure she flung out one more enormous blast that sounded out with a thunderous boom. Lowering her hand, she watched as Skyy ran up to her.

"Vallow?" Skyy asked shocked as she looked at what was once a small fairy.

"Yes."

"What... what happened? I... I don't understand...." because the last she had seen of her, she could barely pick a flower much less pick a fight. Glancing at her friend and then to the slowly dissipating cloud, she saw something coming out of it.

"Look out!" Skyy he shouted as Beelore jumped through the haze slamming into Vallow , flinging her forward and making her skid along an outcropping of rocks. Finally stopping, Beelore used his beetle wings to fly out of the dust and pick up Vallow by the back of her head, before turning her around to face him. As Skyy tried to run over and help her friend, she too was siezed around the neck.

"My Lord will be pleased." Beelore spoke eyeing both of them. "Any final last words?"

"Yes." Vallow said weakly as a little dribble of blood ran down her chin. "HA!!!!" she yelled as she let loose a violent stream of energy out of her free hand, towards his face. Catching him off guard, the demons head popped like a watermelon sending a spray of green blood high into the air.

"That was.... that was amazing." Skyy was saying as Vallow streched out her hand, helping her to her feet. Their celebration was short lived however as another demon soldier came out of the shadows.

"You're hurt." Skyy said, giving her friend a once over. "I'll deal with this."

As she said that, she somersaulted forward and as she got close enough, brought a knifehand chop down towards the demon's head. Seeing it coming it blocked the blow and snapped out a high kick of it's own. Knocking the flimsy attack away she moved forward with a rainbow kick that slammed against the soldiers helmet.

Skyy was forced back as the horned demon pounced forward, swinging a sword at her head. Skyy then sidestepped and knocked the soldiers sword away before following with a spinning heel kick that slammed against it's helmet and knocked him backwards. As he fell down she heard something behind her. Turning she saw four other similar soldiers running towards her.

"Kamehame..... HA!" Vallow shouted as she gathered blue crackling energy between her hands. Shooting out a stream of power the demons dissappeared in a cloud of gore and blood. "We must... we must get to Xander." Vallow said as she nearly fainted from fatigue and minor blood loss. Catching her friend before she fell, Skyy held her close and checked for a pulse.

* * *

Xander stood in the middle of the battle field charging up power. As the blue and black energy surrounding him reached it's pitch, he clapped his hands together and thrusted both of his hands out shooting out a violent stream of wind that blew away or destroyed alot of Dai- Satan's soldiers.

"You know I went through lots of trouble to gather those men." Mongral said as he walked close to the King.

"Oh don't worry, soon you're gonna join them." Xander replied with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You know I never was good at sports but for some reason I feel like playing volley ball."

As he said that Xander charged power into the rings of Thalos, clenched his right hand together and swung at Mongral catching him under the tip of his chin. The blow was so powerful that it launched the villian high into the air where Xander quickly flew up after him. Just before Xander could spike him Mongral opened his eyes and hit him with a punch of his own sending Xander back down to the ground. With a smile he followed him once gravity took hold of his body.

Getting his composure back, before he hit the ground, Xander looked up into the air and smiled. Hoping to catch the demon off guard Xander jumped into the air and came up behind the monster landing a blow to his back sending the giant of a man to the ground. Landing next to the unconcious demon Xander was about to deliver a finishing blow, until Mongral suddenly sat up, grabbed his right leg and threw him off into the distance knocking him through a giant boulder, knocking him unconcious.

Standing to his feet out of nowhere Mongral was hit from the side knocking him a few feet away. Standing where he just was Kendra frowned as she surveyed the battle scene.

"Who... who are you?" the demon asked, rubbing the side of his head.

"I am Kendra!" she growled. "And you will fight me next, monster."

As soon as the last word escaped her lips, she suddenly charged at the raising beast with a loud cry of rage. As if she were a mere bug, he slapped her away, but to his misfortune she was only a little dazed and came after him again. Breaking through his defenses she landed a kick to his groin and delivered a hard punch to his gut. Before she could deliver another blow, she felt a soft rumbling under her feet. Thinking that it was an earthquake she was stunned to find out that it was only Mongral's laughter.

"Did you really think you could stop me?" he asked. "You a pitiful little incest? I'm a God."

As he said that she could only stare wide-eyed as he swung at her snapping her head back and making her fly through the air helpless. Sending up dust and stone, Xander jumped out of his rock tomb and caught Kendra moments before she fell to the ground. Staring at her prone body fondly he gently placed her on the ground checking for a pulse. Finding that it was still strong and that she was just unconcious, he looked up angrily to see his nemesis watching him.

Not giving the villian the time to say what a villian would normally say at that moment, Xander ran forward only for Mongral to raise his leg up and kick Xander square in the chest sending him through some trees and into a ditch created by his own body. Body wracking with pain, Xander stood to his feet knowing that his body was ready to give out on him at any time.

"I've had enough of you." Xander said to the demon as blood started to slowly pour out of his mouth. Cupping his hands together and leaning back slightly the rings of Thalos and his dragon symbol on the back of his hand started to glow fiery red. Gathering a ball of fire into his palms he summounded the last of his power.

"As your people say." Mongral started with a smile. "Bring it."

"Gladly....., Hellfire!" Xander screamed out as a red beam of energy shot out of his palms.

Smiling , even as the beam got within a foot of him, Mongral held up two fingers making the beam stop and with a little more power made it slowly start to go backwards. Thinking that that was it and that he was going to die, Xander saw two differnt hands appear on each side of him. Not even having to turn around, he already knew that it was Vallow and Kendra. Hovering their open hands over his hands they gave him the power he needed to push the beam back and hit Mongral. With a cry of rage nothing could be seen as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire.

Falling to his knees with tears in his eyes, Xander felt the heads of Vallow and Kendra on his shoulders as they both sank down next to him crying.

"It's finally over." Kendra said, exhausted. As soon as those words left her lips Xander looked up with wide eyes and saw a ghostly image of a man standing where Mongral once was. Looking more closely he saw that it was Alphonse, Skyy's uncle.

"Take care of my niece oh mighty king." the ghost said telepathically as it turned and disappeared. Holding his girls even tighter all he could do was cry the battle was finally finished behind them.

* * *

Nail, bloody and spent, walked through the aftermath of the carnage. His sister Constance at his side. Dead and dying by the hundreds were scattered everywhere. The smell alone was something neither of them would ever forget.

Seeing a large tent in the distance, they walked in and were met by a spectacle of the dead and dying. Thalonian surgeons were working feverishly to save lives. Limbs were amputated, the bloody stumps

quickly cauterized with hot irons. Leeches and bronze cups were employed for blood-letting to balance "humours."

Since they weren't in a medical facility anesthesia was nonexistent. Wine amphoras were passed around and orderlies fanned narcotic smoke toward the patients. Mostly, though, they just held down the

writhing patients. Trying not to be depressed he moved through the tent, offering a word of comfort here and there. All the wounded were delighted to see him.

After a few moments, he flicked his sword so it rested on his shoulder, even as Xander hobbled over to him.

"Xander!" Constance screamed as she ran into his arms. Earning some angry glares from the doctors, Xander just waved them off. "See I told you, that you were the chosen one."

"No... we were the chosen three." Xander said with a smile as he looked back at Vallow and Kendra, who were currently getting treated for their wounds, before looking back at the little girl. "Hey where's your sister?"

Before she could answer him, he felt her prescence in the room. Looking up to the entrance of the tent, he saw her with her head down and the last of fading tears falling from her face. Squeezing Constance's hand softly he quickly walked over to Skyy and gave her a lopsided grin.

"Hey pretty lady, why are you crying?" he asked simply.

"You know why." she stated almost angry. "You've done what you were foretold to do. I know that you're going to leave...me and go home."

"Hey I am, home." he replied, putting his hand under her chin making her look up at him. "I always felt out of place in Sunnydale, but here... here I feel like I belong. Like I'm important."

"What are you saying?" Skyy asked excitedly.

"I'm saying there's no way on Thalos that i'm leaving my Queen." he said suddenly looking her deep in the eyes. "That is if she'll have me?" not answering him in words she got up on her tiptoes and gave him a long passionate kiss that he suddenly broke.

"What is it?"

"What I came here to do." he said walking past her and looking out into the night sky. "I have to unite this kingdom."

The Next Day

On top of the Temen-ni-gru

Finishing the final touches on a large red alchemy circle, Xander and Vallow suddenly sat indian style in the middle of it and closed their eyes.

"I still don't understand what you're doing." Kendra said as she looked over the edge of the massive tower and saw thousands if not millions of Thalonian people on the surface world straining to look up at them. "And I don't understand why you called all dese people here."

"You will." Xander replied as he cracked one eye open and looked at her. "Now sit down and concentrate. I can't do this without you."

Doing as she was told she sat down in a loose circle around them and strecthed her hands out like the others were doing. After a few moments they all heard a crumbling sound and the tower, castle and all started to go down like an elevator. As the castle stopped Xander opened his eyes and stood to his feet and was looking face to face with his people.

"People of Thalos." he yelled out for the people to hear. "Too long have we all been separated." he started as Skyy ran into his arms. "From now on my kingdom is your kingdom. Welcome.... welcome home." he said with a smile as his people started to yell and cheer. As it died down Skyy suddenly whispered into his ear.

"So what are we going to do now?"

Not answering her Xander just smiled and looked off into the distance.


	9. Chapter 9 The Gift of Being Home Again

A/N Finally this story has come to an end. So now people can stop emailing me about this, lol. Also I'm sorry for this being rushed, enjoy anyway.

Chapter 9

The Gift of Being Home Again

Thalos

Some Moonslips Later

Xander's castle

Main Library

"And then what happened, Mr. Zabuto?" a little four year old girl with strawberry red hair and liquid brown eyes asked the older man.

"And then little one you were born." the ex-watcher replied with a smile as he tickled her mercilessly. Her laughter echoing throughout the vast and endless sea of books in the library. Once Xander had come back to get him he had offered the older man a job position that he couldn't refuse. He was to be the Master Librarian of Thalos. The one that was in charge of bringing knowledge and culture and to be a teacher to an entire land of people. And what made it even better was that his charge was Master guard of the Thalonian courts.

"But I still have some questions." the little girl said looking up at the man.

"Ah the inquisitive one." Zabuto said as the little girl sat in his lap. "What is it little one?"

"What ever happened to that tree ogre that my daddy fought and...and what happened to his dragon?"

"Those are questions that you have to ask your father." as he said that the little girl jumped out of his arms and ran out of the library. With a smile Zabuto stood to his feet and continued to dust and catalog his books.

* * *

Running down the vast corridors of the castle the little girl came to a massive golden door. Not bothering to knock she quickly opened the door and peeped inside only to see her daddy, her aunt Kendra, the guardian of magicks Vallow, and her uncle Nail heavily in debate with some generals from the continent of Solom. Even though Xander had his back to her he still felt her presence in the room. Turning she ran into the room and jumped into his arms.

"Hi daddy." she said giving him one of her patented lopsided grins.

"What are you doing here, Willow? I thought you and Mr. Zabuto were hanging out together."

"We were, but then he told me about some stuff you did daddy."

"Stuff?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow. "What stuff?"

"Like what you did to that poor tree ogre." she said, making him search his memory about what she was talking about.

"Hey that thing was trying to kill me and..."

"You always told me to run away from danger if you had a choice. Why did you hurt it?" before he could answer she went on with what was strangely like Willow babble. "Why didn't you go back home and make up with your friends? And what happened to your dragon?"

"Forgive me for this... intrusion." he said as he looked to the men from Solom then back to his daughter.

"We understand King Xander." one of the men spoke up with a laugh. "I have a daughter myself."

"Kendra, Vallow come with me. Nail could you stay and continue negotiations?"

"Yes, Xander." he replied as Kendra and Vallow stood up and walked with Xander and Willow out into the hallway.

"Xander what is..." Kendra started as she looked deep into his eyes and read his mind and smiled. "Come on little one." she said taking Willow out of his arms, turned on her heels and went down the opposite end of the hallway.

"Where are we going, Aunt Kendra?"

"We're goin' to change clothes so we can go on a lil trip."

"Yay, bye daddy." she said looking over Kendra's shoulder and waving.

The Dark Woods

Some Hours Later

Xander stood before the tree ogre that he hadn't seen in years and let out a big gulp. The left side of the ogre's head and part of it's body were destroyed by flames and the inner workings of his head were exposed. With a sneer the ogre turned what was left of it's head, saw Xander and stood to his full height with the aid of a giant tree trunk, that it used as a cane.

"So the noble King returns." it started sarcastically as it peered down at him with it's one good eye. "After so many moonslips have you finally come to finish me off?"

"Nnnnoooo, I've come to make things right." Xander replied nervously. He wasn't nervous out of fear but rather the fact that he really didn't know if he could make it right or not.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!" the ogre laughed causing the earth under them to shake. "Make things right. How dare you...!" it yelled out as it prepared to lift up it's hand and squash him like a bug. As he did he looked down again and saw little Willow run from behind her father's legs.

"Merciful Zeus." she said as she looked up at the towering figure.

"What... what is this?"

"She's my daughter." Xander replied with a smile. "And she was the one that brought it to my attention that I wronged you. Even though I wasn't the one to blast you." he whispered the last part out under his breath. "I know that an apology won't do it, so I'll give you this." looking around for a bit, Xander saw what he needed. Walking in front of the ogre he clapped his hands together and placed it on the ground and watched as energy went into the spot of where he placed his hands. Before the titan could ask what was going on large thick vines suddenly wrapped themselves around his arms and legs, so tightly that it brought him down to his knees.

"Daddy, what are you doing?"

"Just wait and see." he replied as he looked over and saw dead tree's and pieces of wood seemingly crawling on the ground heading towards the large beast. With a scream the ogre fell down in a heap and sent up dust that went high up into the sky. As Willow prepared to run forward, Xander grabbed her and held her back.

"Daddy you're hurting it!" she screamed yanking at his grasp. Before he could explain what was going on the ogre sat up and looked at them, even as the vines dropped at his side. Smiling Xander and the ogre realized at the same time that what Xander sat out to do had worked. The ogre's face and body were now whole. Even his eye had returned to him. Moving past them at a quick pace it looked into a small pond to make sure what it speculated was true.

"I'm whole again." he whispered to himself, as he touched his face.

With another smile Xander picked up his daughter and started to walk the other way. "Come on honey, let's..."

"Wait!" the ogre growled out, stopping Xander in his tracks. Turning on his heel he looked up at the creature who stood a mere three feet from him. Getting down on one knee it eyed Xander as if he were nothing. "I only have one thing to say to you. Thank you."

"You're... you're welcome." Xander said nervously.

"I wasn't talking to you, boy!" the ogre growled out before looking at Willow. "You are truly the Princess of Thalos. I don't know how someone like him managed to raise you but he'd better not mess it up if he knows what's good for him."

"I'll keep that in mind." Xander replied dryly with a roll of his eyes as he turned around and started to walk away.

"Bye." Willow said as she turned around and waved at the ogre.

"Goodbye, little one." the ogre said as he sat down and started to touch at his face. Maybe the boy wasn't bad after all.

"Daddy the castle is the other way." Willow stated as she looked around.

"We're not going back to the castle just yet."

"Then where are we going?" she asked as Xander saw his wife, Vallow and Kendra standing near a pathway.

Walking up to his wife he brushed a strand of hair out of her face, before looking up to her head and seeing her mothers crown. They had been talking about it for years that she should wear it but she didn't feel that she was worthy but now... looking towards his little girl he finally answered her. "We're going to see some old friends." putting his fingers on his forehead all five of them disappeared in a ball of fire.

Sunnydale

Sunnydale High School

Library

As the fire from Xander's dragon warp vanished, he had to take a step back before falling into a huge crater.

"Whoa!" Xander shouted as he readjusted Willow in his arms so he didn't drop her. "Merciful Zeus." he and Willow said at the same time.

"Xander what happened here?" Skyy asked as she looked around at the burnt and destroyed library.

"I don't... I don't know." he replied as he picked up a book and watched as it crumbled in his hands.

"Daddy, I don't feel good." Willow said as she held onto her stomach.

'She must be feeling the effects of the Hellmouth.' he thought to himself loosely as he and the others turned and walked out of the room. "Sunnydale High." he started as they walked down a burnt up and tattered hallway. "These walls – if they were still walls, what stories they could tell."

"There's something wrong here." Vallow said as she suddenly stopped.

"We're on top of the hell..."

"No it's not that." she cut Xander off. "I can feel. I can feel portals, hundreds and hundreds of portals opening." rushing outside they all looked up into the sky and saw silver and white swirls of energy in the night sky. Looking to where the focal point could be they saw a massive tower in the distance. Coming out of a portal a huge dragon flew by where they were.

"Hey that's my dragon." Xander mumbled as it disappeared into another opening.

* * *

Faith was midway up the stairs of the tower before she stopped to take in her surroundings and place the huge war hammer she was carrying in her other hand. There was one last level after which the stairs ended and the only way up was via ladders. As she was ascending onto that level a pretty dirty blond haired woman, wearing a ceremonial robe appeared in front of her and hit her. Taking the hit in stride she hit the Goddess Glory with the hammer, before Glory kicked her into the scaffolding. They exchanged a few more blows and Faith lost her grip on the hammer, which went flying, getting caught in some chain that was hanging off the tower. Taking the opportunity Glory grabbed another piece of chain and used it to swing around the side, knocking Faith aside as she tried to reach the hammer. The dark haired Slayer fell aside, got up, took another kick from Glory and swung around the scaffolding, kicked Glory, ducked a punch and went around the Goddess again, kicking her from behind.

Faith tried to continue climbing but Glory hit her in the leg, making her gasp in pain. As they exchanged a furry of blows, Faith still resumed climbing up the outer scaffolding. With a smirk, as if they were playing a game of cat and mouse Glory went around beside her and climbed up, kicking Faith as she scaled up a pipe. As Faith slid back down to the previous level, she hopped back up and ran up a ramp, kicked Glory in the face, ran down the ramp again and managed to free the hammer. Swinging it at Glory, she hit her a couple of times, before hitting a ladder which fell aside.

Hitting Glory in the face with all her might, Faith herself lost her balance and fell backward, grabbing Glory in the process making both of them fall off the tower.

With a hard thud they both hit the concrete below, a few feet away from each other, the hammer landing nearby. Getting to her feet first Buffy grabbed Glory by the shoulders and pushed her a few dozen feet away, beside a wall.

"You lost your hammer, sweet cheeks." the hell Goddess said with a smile. "What are you gonna hit me with now?" almost as soon as she said that a metallic fist hit her in the head knocking her off of her feet and through a brick wall. Looking to her side she saw a man she hadn't seen in years.

"Who the hell are?" she was about to ask with wide eyes, that suddenly went dim as Glory threw a brick at her hitting her hard in the forehead. As the sound of the brick and skull clashing resonated in her ears, Glory suddenly used her super speed and clotheslined her, sending her into a flip. As her body hit the ground and before she lost consciousness, all she could hear was the metal armed man yell before darkness claimed her.

After what seemed like eons but was probably only a few minutes Faith felt a pair of strong hands pick her off of the ground. As she heard Willow's voice say "Xander what are you doing?" she felt the ground under her move along with a weird sensation of her skin being briefly on fire.

"Good lord!" Giles bellowed as he looked around his new surroundings. Looking around the massive room, he walked through a grouping of pillars and looked up at the pink sky. "My word Xander, where have you brought us?"

"Welcome to Thalos, G-man." Xander said with a lopsided grin. Before Giles could give him his patented "don't call me that.", little Willow squirmed out of Skyy's grasp and threw her little arms around Giles' legs.

"Grandpa!" she screamed as he instinctively picked her up. "Where have you been? I've been waiting to see you for so long." she said as she started to cry and bury her head into his chest.

'Grandpa?' Giles thought to himself.

'Yeah.' Xander replied, projecting his thoughts over to him. 'You didn't really think that I would tell her about Tony did you? No, even though we only knew each other for a short time you were more of a father to me then...' not finishing his thoughts he watched as his best friend walked in front of him and promptly smacked him hard in the face.

"Where have you been, buster?" she all but screamed in his face as she followed suit of what her namesake did and placed her head on Xander's chest crying.." I've missed you so much, I thought you were dead..."

"Same old, Willow." Xander replied, ignoring part of her Willow babble.

"What do you mean, daddy?" little Willow asked, as she took her head off of Giles' chest and looked at him. "I'm over here."

"Daddy?" Willow and Giles asked at the same time.

"I wasn't talking to you, honey." Xander replied as he let go of Willow. "I was talking to your aunt Willow." with only that having to be said, little Willow squirmed out of Giles grasp and jumped into Willow's."

"You... you named her after me?" Willow asked with a smile so wide it almost broke her face. "Wait... what's going on here?"

"Well first things first, I guess." Xander said rubbing his mechanical hand threw his hair, at which his friends stared at. "You already met my daughter, Willow. Well this is my guardian of Magick's Vallow. my Master Guard of the Thalonian courts Kendra, and this feisty little minx is my beautiful wife Skyy."

"Wife?" Willow said loosely with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Maybe we should all sit down." Skyy suggested as they started to sit down at a long formal table, that Faith and the mystery girl with long brown hair were laying on.

"She's made up of a pure green energy." Vallow said breaking his train of thought.

"We'll get to that in a minute." Xander said as he leaned back heavily in his throne, before looking at Willow. "Where's Buffy?"

Restview Cemetary

Moments Later

Xander stared quietly down at his once best friends grave. He had hoped that he could come back and make amends with her, but just like his arm that too was taken from him. It seemed that not long after he had left she was told a prophecy that she would die at the hands of the Master and like the true Slayer she was, she went down to his cave to fight him. And fight him she did, not knowing that she was fulfilling said prophecy.

After she was killed, Angel felt bad about leaving her behind and followed her, only to find her drained and laying face first in a pool of water. Sensing the Master's dark energy, he followed him to the school's roof where they fought and both died after being pushed off of the building and falling onto the broken end of an upturned table. After about three month's a new Slayer named Samantha came to Sunnydale with her Watcher, Mr. James. Giles having left for England because he wasn't needed anymore.

Unfortunately Samantha only lasted a year, having went down in a blaze of Glory after taking on and killing a vampire named William the bloody and his mistress Drusilla. He really wished that he had of met the Virginian Slayer and saw first hand her courage in staying in a burning building making sure that one of the most dangerous vampires of all time died with her. After that a runaway Slayer by the name of Faith popped into town looking for help from said Slayer, but found the Scooby gang instead. Calling Giles he had come back to Sunnydale and had then became her Watcher.

After two years of being the Slayer over Sunnydale some monks had cast a spell to hide a key that a hell Goddess was looking for. They had made her in the form of a sister for Faith named Hope. They had figured that if she had strong fillings for the form they chose for the key that the Slayer would protect it with her life. He was very happy that Kagome and kept her promise and sent Giles a letter telling him that he was still alive.

Shaking the new information into the back burner of his mind, he let out a sigh and smiled down at his friend's grave. "Goodbye Buffy." he said as he squatted down to touch he grave. "I hope you rest in..." as he touched the ground he felt a dark spell covering the aura of her body. As if in his minds eye, he thought back to when the last time the two had seen each other and wondered if that was what was wrong with her. Not knowing nor caring he clapped his hands together, sending positive energy down into her grave dispelling the evil that held on.

Making sure his friend was finally at peace he stood to his feet and walked towards the entrance of the graveyard. Walking past his wife, she grabbed his arm with her free hand, the other hand was busy holding her daughter of whom was sleeping silently on her shoulder.

"Xander where are you going?"

"You two go back to Thalos." he said as he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "I have to fulfill one last promise."

Fuedal Era

Later that day

Rin felt a shadow lean over her as she bent down to pick flowers. Looking up she smiled as she saw Xander standing over her.

"Xander sama!" she yelled as she threw her arms around him. "This Rin is happy to see you."

"I'm happy to see you too." Xander said sincerely as he patted her on the head. "You're alot taller then I remember."

"That's why Lord Sesshomaru got me this new kimono." she said as she twirled around so he could see her new blue and red checkered outfit.

"That's nice." Xander replied dropping the smile. "Speaking of Sesshomaru, where is he?"

As she pointed off to a grouping of trees she went back to picking flowers as he walked off swiftly. As he came into a clearing he saw the demon in question with his back turned to him.

"So noble king, after so long you've decided to come back." Sesshomaru said coolly, having smelled the human long before he arrived. "This Sesshomaru was beginning to think that you'd never show up."

"Well I hate to disappoint." Xander replied as he raised his mechanical hand up and used alchemy to turn it into a blade. Not saying a word Sesshomaru just smiled, unsheathed his sword and ran forward at an ungodly speed.


End file.
